Women's rights in Afghanistan, Fleet street pioneer Julie Welch, Infertility, The works of Mary Stewart

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.1 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2020

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fawzia Koofi, a member of Afghanistan's peace negotiating team survived an assassination attempt on Friday. This come after the Afghan government announced a new council to safeguard women's rights and interests, amid fears peace talks with the Taliban could lead to the loss of hard-won gains. Mahjooba Nowrouzi from the BBC Afghan Service explains.

In 1973, Julie Welch became the first woman to report on football for a British national newspaper. In her new book 'The Fleet Street Girls' she talks about her own battles for recognition, and the experiences of other female trailblazing journalists who also took on the male-dominated world of Fleet Street.

Mary Stewart has been called one of the great British storytellers of the 20th century. The author who has sold over 5 million books is said to have invented the romantic suspense novel. Her 1954 best-seller Madame, Will You Talk? has been dramatised in two parts for Radio 4. We speak to the writers Jane Casey and Harriet Evans who are both fans of her work.

Kat Francois is a performance poet and playwright. In coming to terms with her own infertility she came to the realisation that in all communities, but especially in black communities, infertility can be a taboo subject. She spoke to other women who shared similar experiences and weaved their stories along with her own into a performance piece.

Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Dianne McGregor

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Jane Garvey and this is the Woman's Air Podcast from Monday, the 17th of August,
0:10.9	2020. Hello, a very good morning to you. Today, I'm delighted to say I'm going to be talking
0:15.0	to one of my journalistic heroines, Julie Welsh, the pioneer of female sports writing
0:20.3	is on Woman's Air this morning. We'll also hear about the taboo of infertility and we'll
0:25.3	celebrate the late writer Mary Stewart. Madam, will you talk, is going to be dramatised
0:31.4	on Radio 4 at beginning on Saturday afternoon and we'll chat about Mary Stewart, the novelist
0:37.4	Jane Casey and Harriet Evans on Woman's Air this morning. First, though, to Afghanistan,
0:43.7	where the Afghan government has announced a new council to safeguard women's rights and
0:48.9	interests, amid fears that peace talks with the Taliban could lead to the loss of hard-won
0:55.3	gains. But just a day after that announcement about the new council, there was another attempt
1:00.6	on the life of a prominent Afghan women's rights campaigner for Farzia Kufi. She has survived,
1:07.3	it was the second time that she'd been the target of an assassination attempt.
1:12.9	Mojuba Narosi is from the BBC's Afghan service. And Mojuba, Woman's Air has talked very frequently
1:20.0	about the situation for women Afghanistan over the years. And to be blunt about it, it doesn't
1:25.6	seem to have got any better. How would you assess things now? Well, that's true. Unfortunately,
1:33.6	the situation is still very grim. And what I hear from Afghan women in Afghanistan,
1:42.1	I mean, they are disappointed. And this new council that you mentioned, and some women,
1:48.8	especially Farzia Kufi, as you said, was a prominent lawmaker and a campaigner,
1:55.1	was shot and injured in the right arm. This weekend was very positive about this council,
2:02.9	and she said that it was a positive step towards the right direction and that it could change
2:11.4	this status quo. After the incident, she from her hospital bed said that people who carried out
2:20.2	their attack were enemies of the peace and the woman's freedom. I think this assassination attempt
	...

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