The Conversation

Discovering how your family was caught up in major historical events...two women from India and Singapore tell Kim Chakanetsa why they started digging into family secrets, how these stories were lost or deliberately forgotten, and the role that gender played.Aanchal Malhotra's grandparents fled what is now Pakistan in the chaos of Partition in 1947. Until she began to research her book Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided, she never knew their traumatic migration stories. They had buried them deep. Aanchal managed to persuade her grandmothers to reveal their secrets using the few objects they managed to bring with them. Aanchal is an artist and oral historian.Sim Chi Yin's grandfather was caught up in two different conflicts, the Malayan Emergency and then the Chinese Civil War. He was executed by nationalists in China in 1949. When Chi Yin discovered this history, taboo in her family for decades, it became the starting point for her photographic project One Day We'll Understand. She has since gone on to gather oral histories from the remaining leftist rebels of the Malayan conflict. Chi Yin is a photographic artist and nominee member of Magnum Photos.L Sim Chi Yin (credit: Keyyes.com/Joel Low) R Aanchal Malhotra (credit: Aashna Malhotra)

Nigeria is a country where women take leading roles in business, media and the arts yet for many, feminism is a filthy word. The country recently went to the polls and out of a list of 73 presidential candidates just eight of them were women. One of them, Eunice Atuejide sparked a fierce debate when she announced, “I am not a feminist”. She went on to say, “And who is a feminist? So what is Nigerian feminism? This is a country that has a history of legendary women, from the warrior Queen Amina of Zazzau to the 1929 ‘Women’s War’ where thousands of women came out in protest against British tax collections. Yet according to a recent UNICEF report, one in four girls in the country have experienced sexual violence, while 23% of women between the ages of 18 and 24 have experienced physical or sexual violence in the home. The Conversation has come to Lagos to meet a panel of successful and outspoken women, each leaders in their field, to challenge pre-conceptions and break some myths about what it means to be a woman in Nigeria. They discuss the highs and lows of their experiences with an audience of some of the sharpest young minds of the future, students from the University of Lagos.Fatima Zahra Umar is a lawyer, writer and gender activist behind the popular blog #DivorceDiaries. Ijeoma Umebinyuo is described as one of the top ten contemporary poets from Sub-Saharan Africa. Ijeoma says "I am always sharpening the blade of my pen". Bisola Aiyeola is a Nollywood actress, singer and Reality TV star. Oluwaseun Osowobi is the founder and Executive Director of 'The Stand to End Rape Initiative'. She is also 2019's Commonwealth Young Person of the Year for her role in fighting gender based violence.There is also a special ‘anonymous’ guest appearance by storyteller, blogger and cultural commentator ‘Diary of a Naija Girl’.Presented by Kim Chakanetsa and produced by Andrea Kennedy.Image (L-R): Fatima Zahra Umar (Credit: Ami Mansur), Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi (Credit: Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi), Ijeoma Umebinyuo (Credit: Ijeoma Umebinyuo), Bisola Aiyeola (Credit: TMPL)

Empowering women with self-defence skills is the aim of our two guests, who have both adapted traditional martial arts to create classes for women. They tell Celia Hatton about the transformation they see in their students when they first realise their own strength, and the power of self defence to change lives. They also discuss the potential danger of putting the onus on women to deal with violence, rather than tackling the problem of the perpetrators.Catalina Carmona Balvin runs The School of Self Defence for Women in Bogotá, Colombia, a country which has high levels of street harassment and domestic violence. Catalina teaches a form of Hapkido, a Korean martial art characterized by its emphasis on deflecting an opponent’s attacks instead of on forceful blocking, but she makes sure her classes provide a fun, safe environment, more inspired by salsa dancing than by hard-core, macho moves.Susie Kahlich runs an organisation in Berlin called Pretty Deadly, which teaches self-defence courses tailored for women. Originally from the US, Susie turned to martial arts after she became a victim of violent crime in Los Angeles nearly 20 years go. Susie invites her students to wear whatever clothes they would usually wear, from long skirts to headscarves, in order to make the moves easily adaptable to everyday scenarios.L: Catalina Carmona Balvin (credit: Andrés Epifanio Becerra García) R: Susie Kahlich (credit: Sahand Zamani)

Protecting lions in Kenya and grizzly bears in the US - two women tell Kim Chakanetsa about their experiences and achievements in the male-dominated field of wildlife conservation.When Shivani Bhalla realised that lions - her country's national symbol - were in trouble, she established a project in northern Kenya to protect them. She works with the whole community to prevent lion deaths. This includes the traditional Samburu women, who are leading their own conservation efforts under the title of Mama Simba, which means Mother of Lions.Louisa Willcox has spent the last three decades battling to protect the grizzly bear population in the US. In 2018 she helped get the bears back onto the endangered species list, meaning that planned trophy hunts on state lands had to be cancelled. There are around 700 grizzlies left in the Greater Yellowstone area, and Louisa says the females count the most, because they hold the key to recovery.L-Background image: Lion Credit: Ewaso Lions L-Image: Shivani Bhalla Credit: Nina Fascione R-Image: Louisa Willcox Credit: Louisa Willcox R-Background image: Grizzly bear Credit: Richard Spratley

Ireland voted in two ground-breaking referendums in the last five years. The same sex marriage referendum and Irish abortion referendum have changed the lives of many women in the country forever. And the campaigns continue. The Irish people are expected to go the ballot again to vote on removing a clause from the Irish Constitution that effectively says a woman’s place is in the home. The Conversation has gone to Dublin Castle to meet a panel of successful and outspoken influencers, each a trailblazer in their field and responsible for pushing the boundaries of what women are allowed to have and achieve. They discuss life after the referendums, and what’s next in the fight for equality in Ireland in front of a lively audience. Ailbhe Smyth is a veteran feminist activist who led the Repeal the 8th Campaign and founded ‘Marriage Equality’ to fight for the rights of same sex couples to marryStefanie Preissner is a best-selling author, screenwriter and playwright and the creator of Ireland’s hit TV series ‘Can’t Cope Won’t Cope’Nicci Daly is an Irish Hockey star, Motorsport engineer and founder of ‘Formula Females’, a campaign to promote women in motor racingDil Wickremasinghe is a ground-breaking broadcaster in mainstream Irish media who publically called out sexism in the workplace in 2017Presented by Kim Chakanetsa and produced by Sarah Kendal and Andrea KennedyImage (L-R): Ailbhe Smyth (Credit: Paul McCarthy/GCN), Nicci Daly (Credit: Morgan Treacy/Inpho), Stefanie Preissner (Credit: Emily Quinn) and Dil Wickremasinghe (Credit: Dena Shearer)

Two female scientists won Nobel Prizes in 2018, which was unprecedented in a single year. They join Kim Chakanetsa to discuss the whirlwind that followed their wins, their ground-breaking research, and how they believe more women can be recognised for their work.At a glittering ceremony in Stockholm in December 2018, Canadian Donna Strickland became the first woman for 55 years to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. One of the world’s leading laser physicists, based at the University of Waterloo, she was recognised for her co-invention of Chirped Pulse Amplification, a technique that has since been used as part of laser eye surgery and in the creation of smartphone screens. Donna is honoured to become one of just three women to ever win this award, but says she can't speak for all women.At the same ceremony, Frances Arnold became the fifth woman, and the first American woman, to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. From her lab at Caltech, Frances pioneered the directed evolution of enzymes, which has led to a wide range of more cleanly and cheaply made products, from laundry detergents to biofuels and medicines. She says that change for women in science cannot come fast enough, and she hopes that these two wins are 'the beginning of a steady stream' of recognition for female scientists.L-Image: Donna Strickland Credit: University of Waterloo R-Image: Frances Arnold Credit: Caltech

How do women handle high stakes hostage crises and complex conflicts? Kim Chakanetsa brings together two women who have successfully worked with some of the most dangerous men in the world in order to diffuse a kidnap situation or to try to rehabilitate them back into the community. Sue Williams is a British hostage negotiator who, over a career spanning almost three decades, has overseen the successful resolution of hundreds of hostage crises. During her time with the UK's Metropolitan Police, she was in charge of both the Kidnap and the Hostage Crisis Negotiation Units. She now works independently, mainly for NGOs and charities operating in dangerous parts of the world. Fatima Akilu is a Nigerian psychologist whose work centres on the fall-out from the brutal Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s North East. Since 2009, the militant Islamist group has inflicted a relentless stream of suicide bombings, beheadings and kidnappings in the region. As Director of the Neem Foundation, Fatima works with victims as well as perpetrators in an effort to reintegrate them into the community.L: Dr Fatima Akilu (credit: Dr Fatima Akilu) R: Sue Williams (credit: BBC)

How do you tackle cyber bullying? Do feminists hate men? And what has #MeToo done for Pakistan? These are just some of the questions tackled by the all-female panel brought together for this special edition of The Conversation, recorded in front of an audience of Karachi University Students from the Institute of Business Administration.Pakistan is placed second to last in the latest Global Gender Gap Index, beaten only by war-ravaged Yemen, and yet it has also voted in a female Prime Minister, had female generals within the armed forces and a strong feminist movement ever since its birth in 1947. Many of the issues women face here are the same as those faced by women across the world but the stakes can be very high. How a woman behaves in public can, in extreme cases, be a matter of life or death.On the panel are:Faiza Saleem – pioneering comedian and founder of the first female stand-up group in the countryHajra Khan – The first Pakistani, male or female, to have been signed by a foreign football club and captain of the women’s national football teamMahira Khan – Pakistan’s biggest female film star the award winning actressNighat Dad - set-up Pakistan’s first cyber bullying helpline and lawyer involved in Pakistan’s first #MeToo casePresented by Kim Chakanetsa and produced by Andrea KennedyImage: Faiza Saleem, Mahira Khan, Hajra Khan and Nighat Dad (L-R) Credit: Faiza Saleem, Huma Akram, Shakeel Bin Afzal and Nighat Dad (L-R)

What is it really like to go undercover as a woman? Our two guests set out to better understand the sex trafficking trade, and to gain deeper insight into life in North Korea. Suki Kim and Mimi Chakarova talk to Kim Chakanetsa about how they did it, and the challenges they faced.Suki Kim is an investigative journalist and novelist who was born and raised in South Korea. Her bestselling 2014 book, 'Without You, There Is No Us', describes the six months she spent undercover in Pyongyang, teaching the sons of North Korea’s elite at a private university, in the final days of Kim Jong-il’s reign. She says that when the book came out she was surprised by the reaction of her fellow journalists, who chose to focus on what they saw as her 'deception and lies' rather than the unique insights she had gathered on this highly secretive society.Bulgarian-American photographer and filmmaker Mimi Chakarova posed as a sex worker to investigate how women are trafficked in Europe and the Middle East for her 2011 documentary, 'The Price of Sex'. She says going undercover was terrifying, but it was the only way as a woman she could access brothels and sex clubs. Her brief forays covertly filming in those places gave her some idea of what life was like for the women who had been sold into that world. Mimi's most recent project, Still I Rise, celebrates people who persevere in spite of their struggles.Image: L - Mimi Chakarova Credit: Stefania Rousselle R - Suki Kim Credit: Ed Kashi VII

What difference does it make when women run universities? There are many higher education leaders who champion the idea of diversity, but few of them truly embody it, so the view from the top is still largely pale and male. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women who are shaking things up in their institutions in the United States and Ecuador.Ana Mari Cauce is the first woman, the first Latina and the first openly gay president of the University of Washington in Seattle, US. She says it’s important to remember that universities began as monastic institutions built with men in mind, and she often finds that they still struggle to adapt to the presence of women.Cecilia Paredes Verduga is the first female Rector of the highest-ranking public university in Ecuador, ESPOL (Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral). With a background in the male-dominated field of engineering and in a country with a culture of machismo, Cecilia feels it's important to be herself in the role and to say things as they are.L Cecilia Paredes Verduga (credit: Jose Javier Roldos) R Ana Mari Cauce (credit: University of Washington)

What’s it like to grow up away from your family? Two women who spent part of their childhoods in care tell Kim Chakanetsa how they look back on that time, and how the experience has shaped them as adults.As a child, Rukhiya Budden experienced terrible neglect and abuse growing up in an orphanage in Kenya. Today she campaigns for orphanages to be abolished worldwide, as she believes such institutions can never provide the level of care that children really need.Following her mother’s death, Hayley Kemp was left at a children's home by her father, who had told her they were going to the dentist’s; she was eight years old. She remembers her year in the home as the happiest time in her childhood. She says that growing up in care has drawn her to work with refugees, as she finds it easy to empathise with their sense of displacement.(L) Image and credit: Hayley Kemp (R) Rukhiya Budden (credit: Hope and Homes for Children)

What is making women angry, and can that rage be channelled for good? Kim Chakanetsa speaks to feminist writers from South Africa and the US. US writer and media critic Soraya Chemaly says women across the world have a right to be angry. Their rights are undermined, they're routinely underpaid and belittled. But from an early age girls are also taught to suppress their anger and calm themselves down when fired up. She says women need to learn to embrace rage as a tool for positive change. Soraya recently published a book called Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger.Dela Gwala is a South African activist and writer, who found feminism in the aftermath of being sexually assaulted. Her white-hot rage at the victim-blaming she faced fuelled her campaigning. It was only when that anger ran out a couple of years later that she says she realised she needed to confront and deal with her other emotions. Dela recently contributed to an anthology called Feminism Is: South Africans Speak Their Truth.L - Dela Gwala (credit: Dela Gwala) R - Soraya Chemaly (credit: Karen Sayre)

Taking event planning to another level, from supplying bespoke flip flops to conjuring unforgettable scents and flying a plane filled with flowers into the desert, two luxury party planners working in Ibiza and Kuwait reveal the secrets of their trade. Their work demands a keen eye for detail and an endless ability to manage vast budgets and the sometimes outlandish expectations of the rich and famous, all while keeping a cool head. Serena Cook is the founder of Deliciously Sorted, a firm that organises birthday bashes, corporate events and bohemian weddings for the rich and famous in Ibiza. Her A-List clients include George Clooney, Katy Perry and Johnny Depp.When Bibi Hayat first started her event planning business she was the only woman doing so in Kuwait City. Through her company Bibi Hayat Events and Design, she has established herself as the person to dial if you are looking to create a memorable bespoke event. Produced by Sarah Kendal for BBC World ServiceBibi Hayat (l) Credit: Bayan Al-Sadiq Serena Cook (r) Credit: Mar Photography

Is being an agent to female soccer players different from representing men? Kim Chakanetsa speaks with two female football agents from the UK and France who have male and female clients. They handle everything from tough salary negotiations and sponsorship deals to the all-important image management.Jennifer Mendelewitsch was the only woman out of 400 agents in France when she qualified 15 years ago. She has built a reputation as a fearsome negotiator and describes herself as part-mother part-friend to her clients, especially the young male players. She says her biggest challenge is getting them to understand the potential repercussions of over-sharing on social media for their future careers.Georgie Hodge is a former player turned agent to the UK's emerging female football stars. She says while the salaries women players can command are still nothing like the men's, major sponsors are finally waking up to their value as brand ambassadors. Because the women's game is still building, Georgie says her players want to positively represent the whole sport, not just worry about their own careers.(Image: (L) Jennifer Mendelewitsch and (R) Georgie Hodge)

A floor-length gown, a strong pose and hundreds of flashing cameras: Kim Chakanetsa brings together the women behind the glamour, making actors and models look good on the red carpet, on stage and even on the street. They are stylists working for some of the most photographed women in Bollywood and Hollywood. How does fashion shape these celebrities' careers, and how do they handle the scrutiny and criticism their clients can receive?Tanya Ghavri is one of Bollywood's busiest stylists. With a decade of experience in the business, Tanya has styled India’s A-list including the actors Kareena Kapoor, Frieda Pinto and Katrina Kaif. Tanya says traditionally Indian designs tend to gain more traction on social media, but Western styles and brands are all over the high street. Some of Tanya's celebrity clients have faced a backlash for wearing more revealing outfits. Emma Watson, Chrissy Teigen and Chanel Iman are among the stars Anita Patrickson has dressed. She grew up on a farm in South Africa and is now an established stylist based in Los Angeles. She began her career working for Condé Nast, and now styles editorial and advertising campaigns as well as the red carpet. She says while her work is focused on making her client look fabulous and feel comfortable, it is also about developing a strategic relationship with a brand.L: Tanya Ghavri (credit: Neha Chandrakant) R: Anita Patrickson (credit: JSquared)

Gaining freedom and strength from your everyday environment. The sport of parkour involves moving around urban obstacles as quickly as possible. Athletes run up walls, scale fences, and jump between roofs. Two female parkour enthusiasts tell Kim Chakanetsa what this sport gives them in areas where women can feel unsafe in the streets.Reem El-Taweel is a parkour athlete from Egypt, living in Dubai. She says when she was living in Egypt it was tough to train because of the street harassment she faced. When she first started she was the only girl, but now more girls are getting into it. She moved to Dubai to follow her dreams and become an assistant parkour coach. She says as a hijabi athlete she is also breaking a stereotype. Silke Sollfrank is a professional parkour athlete from Munich. Her gymnastic background allowed her to quickly develop her own playful style of movement, which has attracted a lot of attention in the parkour scene. She has more than 20k followers on Instagram and landed a spot on Netflix's intense obstacle course series Ultimate Beastmaster, where she was the last female finalist. Silke is the only female athlete in her parkour team.Left: Reem El-Taweel (credit: Katy Vickers) Right: Silke Sollfrank (credit: Matthias Voß)

As a conflict photographer you need bravery, passion and an ability to bear witness to unimaginable horror. Kim Chakanetsa brings together two women who are exceptional photojournalists and asks do female photographers look at conflict differently? The American photographer Lynsey Addario is one of very few women on the frontline, documenting major wars and humanitarian crises around the world. During her career she has been kidnapped twice, but despite the toll on her personal life, she remains committed to revealing the cost of war. Though she says she has received criticism for working while pregnant, being a woman has given her unique access to the lives of women in war zones. Her work has garnered her numerous awards and she was part of the New York Times team that won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2009. Her most recent book is called Of Love and War and is her first published collection of photographs. Poulomi Basu is an Indian documentary photographer who has been described as a visual activist for her fearless examination of systemic injustices. Her lens focuses on stories that often go ignored or underreported, particularly those of women in isolated communities and conflict zones. She says it is important to bring the perspectives of women of colour to photojournalism. Her images have appeared in a wide range of publications and she has received a number of photography awards, including a Magnum Foundation Award and a National Geographic Grant. Image: Poulomi Basu by Flora Thomas (L) Lynsey Addario by Nichole Sobecki (R)

Why is classical music still so male and pale, and what can be done about it? Kim Chakanetsa talks to two leading female musicians who are working to challenge the status quo and open up orchestras to more women and people of colour.Of Nigerian-Irish parentage, Chi-chi Nwanoku realised that 30 years into an illustrious career as a double-bassist she was still one of vanishingly few non-white faces on the classical music stage. So in 2015 she started Chineke!, Europe’s first majority-black and minority ethnic orchestra. Her project is already bearing fruit, with one of her members Sheku Kanneh-Mason, playing solo at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.Mei-Ann Chen is a conductor from Taiwan, and Musical Director at the Chicago Sinfonietta - a professional orchestra founded in the 1980s to showcase the talent of African American and Latino musicians. As well as insisting on diversity in her orchestra and the music they play, Mei-Ann is passionate about opening up the overwhelmingly male-dominated world of conducting to more women, and says she would never have succeeded without a female mentor. You heard extracts from:Dances in the Canebrakes by Florence Price, performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta conducted by Mei-Ann Chen, which will be included on a new CD released in March 2019 on Cedille Records.The second movement of Dvorak's Ninth Symphony in E Minor "From the New World" performed by the Chineke! Orchestra, conducted by Kevin John Edusei. Available on Hyperion Records.(L) Image and credit: Mei-Ann Chen (R) Image: Chi-chi Nwanoku (credit: Eric Richmond)

Nelufar Hedayat unites two women with disabilities from Toronto and Mumbai, who are challenging misconceptions about their sexuality and what they’re capable of achieving. Maayan Ziv is a fashion photographer and entrepreneur from Toronto, Canada. She uses a wheelchair and became frustrated with the lack of information about accessibility of venues in her city. Having discovered early on that technology can alter the day to day life of disabled people all over the globe, she decided to develop an app. It is called AccessNow and uses crowd-sourcing technology to create an accessible map of a city. It's now operational in 35 countries around the world. Nidhi Goyal is an activist and comedian from Mumbai. At the age of 14 she began to lose her sight, which she maintains allowed her to ‘see more clearly’ the barriers that disabled people face. She is India’s first female disabled stand-up comedian, using humour to challenge the way people think about dating with disability and sexuality. She founded the non-profit Rising Flame which advocates for women with disabilities, and delivers disability and inclusion training to companies across India. Produced by Katie Pennick for BBC World Service.Image: (L) Nidhi Goyal Credit: Sahil Kotwani (R) Maayan Ziv

Take your baby into prison or leave them behind? Kim Chakanetsa speaks to two women from Kenya and the US faced with that reality when their lives were up-ended by their wrongful imprisonment. They talk about how they found a purpose while serving time, and have since gone on to support others.Sunny Jacobs was sentenced to death for her role in an alleged double murder in the US in 1976. Separated from her two children, she served five years in solitary confinement - and was only finally released on appeal in 1992, after 17 years behind bars. Sunny met and married another man who had served time on death row. They have set up a sanctuary at their home in Ireland, for others who have been wrongfully incarcerated.Teresa Njoroge served time in Kenya for a financial crime she didn't commit. When her sentence began, she chose to take her three-month old baby into prison with her. Sharing a cell with 50 to 60 other inmates, she was shocked by the plight of the women she met and the revolving door of crime and poverty. After her release - and exoneration - she set up Clean Start Kenya, an organisation that empowers female inmates to better prepare for reintegration into society.Left: Sunny Jacobs (credit: Alexander Duyck) Right: Teresa Njoroge (credit: Titus Kimutai)

Gowns, glittery bikinis and a lot of hair spray: thousands of women around the world wear them on stage every year, hoping to win a beauty pageant. Many say these pageants are demeaning and outdated but others argue that beauty pageants can be life changing experiences that help contestants to go on to academic and professional success. Kim Chakanetsa brings together two beauty queens to find out what's in it for women? Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers is an Anguillan-British barrister and former athlete who is the first black woman to represent Great Britain at a Miss Universe pageant. She says that since winning her title this year many women of colour have reached out to congratulate her for representing black female beauty. She says that she entered pageantry for self-development and hopes that future competitions will change their requirements to allow single mothers to compete. Jamie Herrell is a Filipino-American business entrepreneur who won Miss Earth for the Philippines in 2014. Initially she thought pageants were degrading for women but entered to earn some extra money when her father became unwell. She says there are many different sides to pageantry and many different reasons why women compete. Since winning she has launched an eco flip-flop business to help tourism in the Philippines.Producer: Sarah KendalImage: (L) Jamie Herrell Credit: Euguene Herrera (R) Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers Credit: Kev Wise

The most extreme hate crime against women is femicide, the act of killing a person because they are a woman. But there is a growing movement of women who are taking a stand against this crime and demanding that their community takes it seriously. Nelufar Hedayat talks to two activists from countries where the death toll for women through violence is high: Mexico and Pakistan.Khalida Brohi grew up in Pakistan and saw her family being torn apart when her cousin Khadija was strangled to death with their uncle suspected of having killed her. This spurred Khalida on to fight against so-called honour killings. She says the problem with so-called honour killings is that people merge religion with tradition and are ignorant of what the Quran actually says about respecting women. She decided to work with tribal leaders to change attitudes. Through her organisation Sughar, Khalida gives women practical skills, empowering them economically and giving them confidence. She has written a book about her experiences called I Should Have Honour. Andrea Narno Hijar is a graphic artist and activist in Mexico, where the UN estimated in 2016 that 7 women a day are being murdered. Using her skills as a graphic artist, Andrea is trying to draw attention to this, even though she says it's something most Mexicans don't want to talk about. She says as a woman living in Mexico she faces harassment and violence everyday. She designs posters and puts them up around Mexico City to raise awareness about femicide and to challenge machismo in her culture.Image and credit: (L) Andrea Narno Hijar and (R) Khalida Brohi

Campaigning for gay rights in Uganda and Sri Lanka - Kim Chakanetsa speaks to two women activists in countries where homosexual acts are punishable with a prison sentence.Kasha Nabagesera has been described as 'the face of Uganda's LGBT movement'. Since her twenties Kasha has fought for the rights of her fellow lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, which has brought her into conflict with the authorities. She says she faces daily harassment and serious threats, and doesn't walk the streets alone for fear of attack, but it's worth it. Kasha now runs Kuchu Times, a multi-media platform for the sexual health and rights of queer Africans.In Sri Lanka, consensual sex between women was only criminalised in 1995. Rosanna Flamer-Caldera is an activist who returned to Sri Lanka after living in San Francisco and founded an organisation called Equal Ground, which educates and lobbies on behalf of LBGT+ people. She says as a lesbian she has to be hyper-vigilant at all times, and can't really have a personal life. Rosanna wants to achieve decriminalisation of homosexuality in her country by 2020. Image: (L) Rosanna Flamer-Caldera (R) Kasha Jaqueline Nabagesera Credit: Christine Dierenbach

Is women's sport still not taken as seriously as men's? What needs to happen to achieve the same pay, prize money and media coverage as their male counterparts? Presenter Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women about how they have fought to get equality with men in their chosen sport. Kathryn Bertine was a professional cyclist in the US for five years. She was shocked to discover that the average earnings of a professional female cyclist are well below the poverty line. She was so outraged that she lobbied successfully for a women's version of the Tour de France. But Kathryn believes that this new race is 'tokenism' because it lasts for only one day. Kathryn has gone on to co-found Homestretch Foundation, a charity to support female cyclists financially as they train for events and compete. Hajra Khan is the Captain of the Pakistan women's national football team but says they are given less priority than the men. When she first got into football she says sportswomen were looked down on in her country. Although attitudes are slowly changing she says that there is still a huge wage gap and her club has had to train on local cricket grounds. Hajra is organising a match in Pakistan with female players from around the world to raise awareness and to get better opportunities for female footballers.Produced by Sarah KendalImage: (L) Hajra Khan. Credit: Huma Akram (R) Kathryn Bertine. Credit: courtesy of Cylance Pro Cycling.

Traditionally made by men and often criticised for sexism and colourism, Kim Chakanetsa asks two top female directors if the portrayal - and the power - of women in music videos is now changing.Kemi Adetiba is the only high-profile female video director on Nigeria's thriving music scene, working with artists such as Tiwa Savage, Wizkid and Falz. Now branching out into feature films, she still directs videos on request. She says she wants young girls to know that she is competing in a male-dominated field, and succeeding.Kinga Burza is an Australian director who made the video for Katy Perry's controversial debut single I Kissed a Girl a decade ago, and has worked with a slew of successful young female artists since, including Lana del Rey, Aurora and Dua Lipa. She says more women are now getting into the business but she was in a tiny minority when she started out.Producer: Sarah Crawley(L) Image: Kemi Adetiba. Credit: J. Countess/WireImage/Getty Images (R) Image & credit: Kinga Burza

One year ago a #MeToo tweet by Hollywood actor Alyssa Milano encouraged an outpouring of women using the hashtag to talk about experiences of sexual harassment or assault. What followed were allegations against high profile figures in entertainment, the media and politics with many of the accused denying any wrongdoing. Kim Chakanetsa brings together two women who have made public allegations of sexual abuse in countries where that's highly unusual, to find out if the ripples of #MeToo are being felt beyond Hollywood and the West? Tatia Samkharadze is a Georgian TV journalist and actor who successfully sued her former boss, Shalva Ramishvili, for discrimination after her claim of sexual harassment in January 2018. It was viewed as a landmark case because there is currently no law against sexual harassment in Georgia. Shalva was ordered to pay her nearly 800 US dollars in moral damages, though he denied the claim and is appealing the ruling. Since Tatia made her allegations, she says people have told her that his behaviour wasn't a problem or that it was her fault, and she has been bullied online. She says because she spoke out she has been unable to find work as a journalist. She believes Me Too was a blessing for her and her case. She now campaigns for women's rights. Shiori Ito is a Japanese freelance journalist. In April 2015, she alleged that she had been raped by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a high-profile Japanese journalist, at a Tokyo Hotel. He strongly denies the allegations and after a lengthy investigation, prosecutors dropped the case against him, citing insufficient evidence. In May 2017, Shiori took the unusual move of going public with her claims to try to change how Japan treats allegations of sexual assault, legally and socially. Shiori says after she went public she received many threats and even had to leave her home in a disguise. She says the Me Too movement is slowly helping to shift attitudes towards sexual abuse in Japan. L: Shiori Ito (credit: Hanna Aqvilin) R: Tatia Samkharadze (credit: Ekaterine Kadagishvili)Produced by Sarah Kendal

Does the beauty industry fuel insecurity and undermine a woman's choice to look how she wants? Kim Chakanetsa brings together two beauty entrepreneurs from Singapore and the UK who say they have lifted women up. Sharmadean Reid is a British Jamaican entrepreneur who founded WAH Nails, which she believes changed the beauty landscape with its millennial voice, feminist attitude and innovative salon space. Sharmadean went on to create FutureGirlCorp, workshops aimed at young businesswomen, and has now launched Beauty Stack. She says the beauty industry is perceived as women’s work and is therefore undervalued.Pauline Ng is a Singaporean entrepreneur who founded a skincare spa business in 2009 with her mum. Porcelain has grown into an award-winning beauty chain with four spas, a staff of 60, and a line of popular skincare products. Pauline says that in Singapore there are a lot of opportunities for women in the beauty industry, even if the big multinational beauty companies are still mainly run by men.(L) Image and credit: Pauline Ng (R) Image and credit: Sharmadean ReidProducer: Sarah Crawley

How do you improve women's access to good healthcare? Two female doctors talk to Kim Chakanetsa about the issues they face in two starkly different places - Somalia and the United States.Paula Johnson is an American cardiologist who has dedicated her whole career to thinking about health from a woman's perspective, focussing on the different ways men and women respond to diseases. When Paula learnt that medical research and trials traditionally were only tested on men, she decided she had to fight for the inclusion of women. Paula believes the lack of testing on women, combined with sex differences, can lead to women not receiving effective diagnosis and treatment. Paula thinks that we should be focusing on women's health and well-being as central to women's equality. Deqo Mohamed is a Somali doctor who helps run a 400-bed hospital in a refugee camp west of Mogadishu. It was her mother, the pioneering doctor Hawa Abdi, who opened a small clinic in the 1980s, which became a shelter for thousands of displaced people, the majority of them women and children. Today Deqo oversees a hospital, primary school and women’s education centre. She says she prioritises women's health because her female patients are often singly caring for their whole family. Deqo believes her gender helps her to connect with her female patients and negotiate with warlords. L: Dr Deqo Mohamed (credit: Vital Voices Global Partnership) R: Dr Paula Johnson (credit: Wellesley College)

What is it like to put yourself in danger fighting for your rights as a woman? Kim Chakanetsa unites two women from Iran and Saudi Arabia, who decided to defy their governments' discriminatory laws - and suffered huge personal sacrifices as a result.In Iran women must cover their hair in public, according to the dress rule enforced after the Revolution in 1979. Masih Alinejad says she began to defy this compulsory wearing of the hijab as a teenager and continued to question it from within Iran until it became too dangerous for her to stay. In 2014, Masih posted a picture of herself uncovered online and the My Stealthy Freedom movement began, encouraging ordinary Iranian women to share photos of themselves without the headscarf. Now living in the US, Masih says she suffers abuse, death threats and hasn't seen her parents for nine years, but the truly brave ones are the women in Iran who risk arrest defying this discriminatory law. Masih's book is The Wind in My Hair - My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran.Manal al-Sharif's rebellion began when she got behind the wheel of a car in Saudi Arabia in 2011. Whilst there was no formal ban, it was not legal for women to drive at that time. Manal was driving her own car but was arrested and imprisoned. After her release she continued the campaign she had co-founded #Women2Drive, which led to the loss of her job and eventually leaving the country. On June 24th 2018, the ban on women driving in Saudi was lifted. However women's rights activists continue to be arrested and Manal, who now lives in Australia, says she no longer feels safe to go back. This means she cannot see her elder son who is not allowed to leave the country to visit her. Manal's memoir is Daring to Drive - The Young Saudi Woman Who Stood up to a Kingdom of Men.Image: (L) Manal al-Sharif. Credit: Manal al-Sharif (R) Masih Alinejad. Credit: Kambiz Foroohar

Two female plumbers on what puts women off from entering the industry, the messy reality of the job and the joy of solving problems with your hands.Judaline Cassidy has worked on the pipes of some of New York City's most iconic buildings in a career that has spanned two decades. She grew up in Trinidad & Tobago and came to plumbing because she didn't have enough money to go to law school. But she fell in love with the profession and has become a passionate advocate for women in trades. Judaline is also the founder of Tools & Tiaras, an organisation which runs workshops and summer camps to encourage young girls to take up careers in the construction industry.Hattie Hasan has been a plumber for more than 25 years. When she decided to train as a plumber, she was the only female student in her entire college. Later, she couldn't find a job - no one would take her on - so she set up on her own company in the North of England. She also started a network of female plumbers in the UK that has since become a franchise business, trading under the name Stopcocks. She says she still regularly comes across stories of sexist behaviour, which put a lot of women off from entering the industry, but she hopes that things are changing.Produced by Joanna Impey for BBC World Service.(Image: (L) Judaline Cassidy. Credit: Jena Cumbo; (R) Hattie Hasan. Credit: Nicola Tree)

Just 12 women have won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine since it was founded in 1901. Kim Chakanetsa brings together two of these female Nobel Laureates - both extraordinary scientists from Norway and France.Professor May-Britt Moser won the prize in 2014 for the discovery of a type of cell in the brains of rats, which helps them locate their position in space. She won the prize jointly with her former husband Edvard, with whom she had collaborated since they were students. Now divorced, they still run a world-renowned neuroscience lab - the Kavli Institute - together in the far north of Norway, where they are pursuing research that could further our understanding and treatment of Alzheimer's in humans.Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi was a researcher at the Institut Pasteur in Paris in the early 1980s when a new and terrifying disease emerged - AIDS. She and her colleague very quickly identified the HIV retrovirus as the cause, and set about finding a treatment. In 2008 she was recognised by the Nobel committee for this achievement, and she says this has opened doors for her work that otherwise would have remained closed - enabling her to better advocate on behalf of the vulnerable people most affected by HIV-AIDS.Image: (L) Francoise Barré-Sinoussi. Credit: Institut Pasteur (R) May-Britt Moser. Credit: TiTT Melhuus

The lost role of women in the development of the computer industry is brought into focus by an internet pioneer and a computer historian.Radia Perlman is an American computer programmer often described as the 'Mother of the Internet' for her invention of the spanning-tree protocol, an algorithm which allowed early networks to cope with large amounts of data. She describes it as a 'simple hack' and it is still in use today.Tilly Blyth is Head of Collections and Principal Curator at the Science Museum. She specialises in the history of computing and is particularly interested in the lost role women played within that history. She has curated an exhibition on Ada Lovelace, a 19th century trailblazer of science.Image: (L) Tilly Blyth and (R) Radia Perlman Credit: (L) Science Museum Group Collection and (R) Andrew Tanenbaum

Two award-winning African writers sit down with Kim Chakanetsa to talk race, gender and getting published in your early 20s.Nigerian author Chibundu Onuzo started writing her first book aged 17, became the youngest woman ever to sign to her publishing house at 19, and released her first novel, The Spider King’s Daughter, at the age of 21. Chibundu is based in London and her second book is called Welcome to Lagos. Panashe Chigumadzi is a Zimbabwean-born novelist and essayist. Raised in South Africa, she is the author of a novel Sweet Medicine and These Bones Will Rise Again in which she examines Zimbabwean history through the lives of her grandmothers.(L) Panashe Chigumadzi (credit: Jodi Bieber) (R ) Chibundu Onuzo (credit: Blayke Images)

Is it possible to end child marriage in a generation? Kim Chakanetsa brings together two women working to make it a thing of the past in Malawi and in the United States.Memory Banda's sister was just 11 when she was forced to marry the man who'd made her pregnant. Determined not to have the same fate, Memory persuaded local leaders in Malawi to change their minds about this cultural practise and then - still a teenager - she successfully campaigned for the government to raise the marriage age to 18 across the country in 2015. Memory says that she faced a big backlash but she felt she had to speak out when she saw how traumatic the practice was for girls in her community. Trevicia Williams came out of school one day and was told by her mother that she was going to be married. Trevicia was 14. Her prospective husband - whom she hardly knew - was 26. It took her three years to escape the marriage. Trevicia says education was her key to surviving the experience. Now a doctor of psychology, she empowers individuals and families to build strong healthy relationships and prevent social issues like child marriage. Trevicia's testimony was key to her state of Texas changing the law to outlaw marriage under the age of 18, in 2017.(L) Dr Trevicia Williams (credit: Trevicia Williams) (R ) Memory Banda (credit: Bensam)

Can hats be liberating for women? Nelufar Hedayat brings together a hatmaker to the British Queen and a turban designer to Beyoncé. Rachel Trevor-Morgan is a London based milliner who has been making hats for the Queen for over a decade. As well as royalty she also sells to top fashion retailers, and thinks it's a shame that we don’t wear hats as much as we used to. Rachel is not trying to push the boundaries of fashion with her hats - she says her mission is to make her clients look classically feminine and glamorous. Donia Allegue Walbaum is a French luxury fashion designer whose turbans have been commissioned by Beyoncé, including for the video for her latest single. She's aiming to reinvent this age-old headpiece in a modern way, and says it's the ultimate accessory. Many of her clients also wear them to cover their heads for religious reasons, or even in the case of illness.Image: Turban designer Donia Allegue Walbaum and milliner Rachel Trevor-Morgan donning their designs (L) Donia Allegue Walbaum. Credit: Laurent Mauger (R) Rachel Trevor-Morgan. Credit: Catherine Harbour

Can translating a book be a feminist act? Kim Chakanetsa brings together two female translators from Egypt and the UK who explain why it matters that more women, and particularly more feminists, are translating texts into Arabic and English.Emily Wilson is the first woman to translate Homer's The Odyssey into English. She says she often found sexist language in previous translations by men which did not actually exist in the original ancient Greek. She believes that all translators have an agenda, but calling a translation feminist can marginalise it. Emily is currently Professor of Classics at the University of Pennsylvania. Hala Kamal is a Professor of English and Gender Studies at Cairo University. She teaches on the topic of 'feminist translation' and translates classic feminist texts into Arabic so that students who cannot speak English can still access feminist theory. She thinks feminist voices have been lost and neglected, so she considers translating feminist writers as a form of activism.(L) Hala Kamal (credit: Sharif Sidahmed) (R) Emily Wilson (credit: Kyle Cassidy)

Body shaming is discrimination against 'non-perfect' bodies and it is usually directed at women. Kim Chakanetsa sits down with a Danish comedian and a British blogger who are challenging society's perceptions of a beautiful female body.Chidera Eggerue - aka The Slumflower - is a British blogger whose hashtag #saggyboobsmatter started an online movement, empowering women who were considering plastic surgery and breast-feeding mothers to love their breasts. Through her public profile, she tackles the absence of positive representation of black women's bodies, bullying and insecurity.Sofie Hagen is an award-winning Danish comedian and fat activist. As a chubby child, she was forced to go on diets, which she says led to her hating her body and was detrimental to her mental health. At university Sofie met a fat activist who changed her life. She then co-started a campaigning group in Denmark, Fedfront, and talks a lot about fatness in her comedy. She says that on a good day she will only receive 100 death threats because of her weight and gender.Image: (L): Chidera Eggerue. Credit: Tom Oldham Image: (R): Sofie Hagen. Credit: Karla Gowlett

The professional kitchen is often seen as a place where bravado, machismo and sexism are standard. Kim Chakanestsa brings together two top female chefs to ask why there are so few women in the industry - and what if anything is holding women back?Dominique Crenn is a French chef living and working in San Francisco. She has two Michelin stars at her restaurant 'Atelier Crenn' - the first woman in North America to do so. In 2017 she also won the Best Female Chef in the World award - although she called the very idea of the accolade 'stupid' and questioned whether it was really the best way to promote women in the industry. In her own kitchen Dominique aims to support women by creating an environment in which people feel secure and where bullying is not tolerated.Skye Gyngell won a Michelin Star unexpectedly, when she was running a garden centre café in leafy south-west London. But she says the honour was a mixed blessing and meant customers turned up with unrealistic expectations. She's now moved on to start her own restaurant called Spring. Skye was classically trained as a chef in France, before working in fine-dining restaurants in London. She says her early experiences of the professional kitchen were sexist and terrifying, but that she loves cooking and hopes that by promoting more women the industry will change.Image: (L) Dominique Crenn by Matt Edge (R) Skye Gyngell by Carol Sachs

Can financial markets transform women's lives? Kim Chakanetsa unites two financiers from Nigeria and Bangladesh who are trying to increase wealth for women in very different ways.Durreen Shahnaz was one of the first Bangladeshi women on Wall Street, and later founded Singapore-based Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) through which she set up the world's first social stock exchange. She recently launched a Women's Livelihood Bond, which will impact the lives of over 385,000 women across Southeast Asia. Durreen says she was advised along the way to change the name of the bond so it didn't include the word 'women'. She refused, poured her last savings into it, and was elated when it became over-subscribed. When Arunma Oteh was head of Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission she took many powerful men to task over corruption and fraud, and faced a gendered backlash. She says people didn't like that the new Sheriff in town was a woman, but the public came to respect her results. Arunma is now Vice-President and Treasurer at the World Bank, where she convinces the private sector to invest in emerging economies. She says women are the real new emerging market, and if they earned as much as men, $160 trillion could be added to global wealth.(L) Arunma Oteh (credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for RFK Human Rights) (R) Durreen Shahnaz (credit: TED)

Their children became sick, and they wanted to know why. Nelufar Hedayat brings together two women who identified toxic water supplies that were poisoning their children and their communities. Phyllis Omido is a Kenyan activist who won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015. Phyllis was working for a smelting factory in Mombasa, when she found out that her breast milk was giving her baby lead poisoning. She then discovered that the toxic waste had entered the local water supply and was affecting the health and lives of 3000 people living nearby. She fought for the closure of the factory and is now suing for compensation for the villages. LeeAnne Walters led a grassroots citizens' movement in Flint, Michigan in the US and exposed a water crisis. She wanted to know why her twins had a rash and hair loss and why their water had turned brown. LeeAnne started gathering evidence and proved that since the water supply had been changed, rates of lead poisoning had increased. She also won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018 for her campaign that convinced the state to stop using unsafe water.(L) LeeAnne Walters (credit: Michael Gleason Photography/Goldman Environmental Prize) (R) Phyllis Omido (credit: Phyllis Omido)

What does it take for a woman to excel in the ruthlessly competitive, male-dominated world of chess? Kim Chakanetsa meets two outstanding female players from Hungary and China to find out. Judit Polgar is the strongest female chess player of all time. As a child prodigy she broke Bobby Fischer's record to become the youngest grandmaster, aged 15. She went on to beat the World No 1 Garry Kasparov, after he had said women shouldn't play chess. Judit says she made a decision very early not to play in the Women's competition, because she wanted to play the best, and they were men. She remains the only woman ever to place in the top 10 players in the world, despite retiring 4 years ago. Hou Yifan is widely considered to be the best woman playing chess today. She has been the Women's World Chess Champion three times, the youngest ever to win the title, as well as the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of grandmaster. Yifan has now decided not to play in the Women's Championship anymore. She took time out of competing to study for a degree and is about to do a Masters at Oxford University, because she believes doing other things is beneficial to her and to her chess.Image: (L) Hou Yifan. Credit: Getty Images Image: (R) Judit Polgar. Credit: Timea Jaksa

In the art world, how much power do women hold? In 2017, of the top 100 artists whose work fetched the highest amount at auction, just 13 were women. Two female art-dealers who have pioneered Czech and Asian art on the international scene, discuss how that affects the way they value and sell art made by women. Pearl Lam is an iconic art dealer and a pioneer in raising the profile of Chinese art. She is the founder of Pearl Lam Galleries which operate in Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong. She is considered a powerhouse within Asia's contemporary art scene and says that although it is all about the art, not the artist, she has become aware of issues with gender and diversity. Katherine (Kacha) Kastner co-founded the gallery Hunt Kastner in Prague in 2005 at a time when there was no established tradition of commercial galleries in the Czech Republic. The goal was to offer a more professional representation of Czech artists both locally and internationally. She says that though she would never choose an artist based on their gender, she is trying to do more to promote female artists.Left: Katherine Kastner (credit: Jiri Thyn) Right: Pearl Lam (credit: William Louey)

We meet two women who earn a six-figure salary by sharing their lives, fashion tips and their most personal moments on social media. Kim Chakanetsa delves into this digital world of influencers and finds out how to be successful in marketing online. French-Cameroonian Freddie Harrel left her career in banking to start a fashion blog. She also writes about her own personal struggles and hopes to inspire other women to embrace their natural selves. Anum Bashir from Qatar blogs under the persona 'Desert Mannequin' and wants to challenge the pursuit of perfection and the popularity of cosmetic surgery in the Middle East.Image: (L) Freddie Harrel Credit: Tom Harrel Image and credit: (R) Anum Bashir

Why do women earn less than men across the world, and what can be done to narrow this gender pay gap? Two experts from Italy and Kenya give their ideas on how to make the workplace more equal and pay women what they are worth.Paola Diana (@paoladiana_) is the founder of PariMerito or Equal Merit, an organisation through which she lobbied the Italian government to pass new equality laws in the workplace, including one requiring company boards to have at least 30% women. Paola started her own businesses as a single mother of two, and believes real change will only come from all nations having more women at the top of politics, business and industry. She is also the author of 'Saving The World - Women: The Twenty First Century's Factor for Change'. Dr Njoki Ngumi (@njokingumi) is a writer, physician and feminist thinker who has held positions in private and public health care sectors in Kenya. She is now coordinating learning and development for the NEST Collective, a Kenyan multidisciplinary artistic squad. She also works at HEVA Fund, Africa's first creative economy catalyst fund. In her experience, official gender gap statistics fail to reflect the reality of most women's work in Kenya, which tends to be informal, and in low wage manual jobs. Thus she says the biggest change would come from improving pay and conditions for domestic workers.(L) Image and credit: Paola Diana (R) Image and credit: Dr Njoki Ngumi

Planting, pruning and giving the orders - Kim Chakanetsa meets two female head gardeners who are challenging the idea that gardening is a hobby for women but a career for men.Sharon Cooke runs Andromeda Botanic Gardens in Barbados, the only Royal Horticulture Society Partner Garden in the West Indies. The garden was created in the 1950s by award-winning horticulturist Iris Bannochie. After Iris died, the garden fell into decline, but Sharon is now restoring it to its former glory. Sharon says that when people ask to meet the Head Gardener, they usually expect a man, and are surprised to see that she is in charge. Sandra Pella has been the Head Gardener at the public Toronto Botanical Garden in Canada since 2008. Sandra is self-taught, but came from a family of green-fingered farmers. She quit her job at a bank and made the change from gardening as a hobby, to gardening as a profession. She says that because of her gender, people sometimes don't believe she is strong enough to use a wheelbarrow or climb a ladder.(L) Image: Sandra Pella. Credit: Paul Zammit (R) Image and credit: Sharon Cooke

Women making history on the snow and ice. Kim Chakanetsa meets two female athletes who are pioneers in their winter sports. Simidele Adeagbo is a Nigerian who is the first African woman to compete in the skeleton category of the Winter Olympics. Originally a track and field athlete, she set out to break barriers in winter sports but was faced with the challenge of no snow or tracks to practise on. The first time she touched a skeleton sled was in 2017, but she qualified for the Pyeongchang Games earlier this year. Lindsey Marie Van is a veteran of women's ski jumping, and was instrumental in fighting for its inclusion in the Olympics. Lindsey campaigned and was part of a gender discrimination lawsuit. After 90 years of male ski jumping, one competition was finally added for women at the 2014 Sochi games (men have three chances to compete). After this huge victory, Lindsey's recurrent knee injury forced her to retire. The Utah athlete was, however, a 16-time national champion and the 2009 world champion.(L) Lindsey Van (credit: Lars Baron/Getty Images) (R) Simidele Adeagbo (credit: Candice Ward)

Explosions in classrooms and a commute threatened by bombs and bullets - academics from Yemen and Syria who found themselves working through a civil war. Kim Chakanetsa brings together two women who are passionate about educating their country's next generation, but were forced to leave them behind when they fled to safety in Europe. They discuss why they had to make that painful decision, and how they are continuing their work in exile.Dr Fathiah Zakham is an award winning Yemeni microbiologist whose research focuses on drug-resistant tuberculosis. She was based at Hodeidah University, a port city in Yemen that came under rebel control in 2015. Despite her institution being destroyed by an air attack, Fathiah stayed in Yemen and even won a global award for female researchers. But eventually the situation became impossible and she left for Switzerland in 2017. She is now doing post-doctoral work at the University Hospital of Lausanne.Reem Doukmak is a Syrian linguist and was working at Al Baath University in Homs, a city at the heart of the uprising against the government in 2011. Homs has been under siege for much of the time since. Reem endured two years living in a war zone before managing to leave Syria with the help of a charity. Reem is now continuing her studies at Warwick University in the UK and she also volunteers as a translator for other refugees.(L) Image and credit: Reem Doukmak (R) Image and credit : Fathiah Zakham

Travelling alone while female - what's the reality? Kim Chakanetsa brings together two wanderlust women who won't let sexism stop them from adventuring into different cities, countries and hemispheres. Meruschka Govender is a travel activist, and experience seeker from South Africa. She regularly backpacks around the continent, but says she always felt that there was a local voice missing in African travel writing, so she began her blog Mzansi Girl. When Meruschka first started travelling solo, as a woman of colour she was seen as unusual, but she says things are now changing. Atikah Amalina is a Singaporean traveller who writes the popular blog The Tudung Traveller. In an age of travel bans and Islamophobia, Atikah travels solo in a hijab, encountering sexism and racism as a Muslim woman, but also friendship and generosity. She says that she tries to be a bridge to a better understanding of Islam for the people she encounters.Image: Atikah Amalina (L) and Meruschka Govender (R), female solo World travellers. Credit: Meruschka Govender c/o Daréll Lourens. Composite: BBC

What does it take to be the world’s best teacher and win a million dollars at the same time? We meet two women who have won the Global Teacher Prize for transforming the lives of their students. Andria Zafirakou is deputy headteacher at a community school in a deprived part of London which has one of the highest murder rates in the UK. Violent gangs often try to recruit the children at the school gates. But Andria is determined to give her students the best possible start in life.Maggie Macdonnell teaches at a school in a small and remote Inuit village in northern Quebec on the Arctic circle. It's an isolated place and there are few jobs for the young. Maggie has made it her mission to do something about the shocking levels and drug abuse and suicide amongst teenagers.Main image: (L) Maggie Macdonnell (image credit: The Varkey Foundation) and (R) Andria Zafirakou (image credit: The Varkey Foundation)

Feminism! Freedom! Identity! When it comes to frank discussions, podcasts by and for women are leading the way in creating communities where nothing is off limits. Kim Chakanetsa brings together two women who are seizing the mic and recording their own stories and conversations. Their podcasts are all about challenging assumptions about gender, race and sexuality and building armies of like-minded individuals.Deborah Frances-White is an Australian comedian and the host of The Guilty Feminist, a podcast which tackles the feeling of not always being a good enough feminist with a dose of humour. Each episode features guests discussing a feminist topic in front of a live audience. Deborah has recorded the show around the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and the US. She says podcasts are a micro-climate where women do well because the audience want them to. In just over two years, her podcast has been downloaded three million times. Ifeyinwa Arinze is a Nigerian neuroscientist and one of the four co-hosts of the podcast Not Your African Cliché. She and her friends Ifeoluwa Olokode, Onyeka Ononye and Amayo Bassey were spurred on to make the podcast after hearing ignorant comments about Africa when they travelled to the U.S. for college. They are on a mission to tell diverse stories of Africans, and invite guests from different African countries to discuss literature, travel and politics with healthy servings of laughter and critical analysis. Ifeyinwa says her podcast is creating a voice for African migrant millennials across the globe. (L) Deborah Frances-White (credit: Linda Kupo) (R) Ifeyinwa Arinze (credit: Mohini Ufeli)