Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast on the BBC World Service

first-hand accounts of events that have shaped our world. I'm Mike Lanchin.

Today we're going back to Iraq in the mid 2000s and the chaotic aftermath of the US-led

invasion. Reports were emerging from the southern city of Basra that religious

militias were attacking

and sometimes even murdering ordinary women, accusing them of violating

Islamic customs. The Basra police showed us records of 47 brutal murders of women in the past few months.

They've never been seen publicly before.

And what crime deserves hideous mutilation and death,

not dressing modestly enough.

Daylight attacks, attempted kidnaps, murders and terrifying threats

daubed on the city walls.

Beware of using makeup and prettifying yourselves, the signs say.

You will be punished for it.

God is our witness that you have been warned.

Dima is from a sheer Muslim family in Basra.

She was just a child at the time.

...