The world's first woman premier

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected prime minster of Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was known then, in 1960 following the assassination of her husband, Solomon Bandaranaike and became the first female prime minister in the world. We hear from Dr Asanga Welikala about her legacy. Plus the first Arab leader to visit Israel, the former hostage taken captive by Somali pirates in 2008 who came to sympathise with their plight and the Jewish refugees given sanctuary by America during WW2. Also the revolutionary and graphic book for women published in 1973 which helped us understand women's bodies and is now published in 33 different languages.

Photo: Sirimavo Bandaranaike the Prime Minister of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka), 1960. Credit Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson
0:04.6	the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:07.8	This week, 1977 and the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's decision to visit Jerusalem.
0:13.2	His foreign minister resigned.
0:15.2	The whole world was shocked, but Sadat himself, he believed that he will have the
0:21.4	chance to meet the Israeli people and look them into the eye.
0:25.8	Plus a 1970s book that shifted global attitudes towards women's health.
0:30.1	We also began to realize it.
0:32.1	Most of the research about women's reproduction and
0:36.0	sexuality was by men describing women's experiences and they were very, very few books on pregnancy and childbirth.
0:45.6	A victim of Somali piracy.
0:47.6	They frequently threatened to shoot one of us, but they all seemed to like Fred, the Irishman. He was a sort of
0:54.6	of roly-poly comedian type, and the four Russians were sort of truckingent and
0:59.7	miserable. I thought if they shoot anybody they'll start with one of the Russians and Jewish
1:06.1	refugees from Nazi oppression arriving in the US. There was a huge moon and I thought my God is the moon different in the United States than in Europe.
1:18.7	That's all coming up later in the podcast.
1:21.0	But before that a woman from history whose life calls to mind Shakespeare's phrase
1:24.8	Some are born great some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them.
1:30.6	In 1960 Sri Lanka or Ceylon as it was known then elected
1:35.8	Syrima Bandoranika as the world's first female prime minister. She only
1:40.8	entered politics after the assassination of her husband Solomon Bandraanika.
1:45.0	Fahama Haider has been speaking to her daughter, Sunethra. You are the first woman prime minister in the world. Does this have any effect? Do you think it makes your influence less strong or more strong?
	...

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