logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2021
49m 51s

The women of Egypt's Arab Spring

Bbc World Service
About this episode

The women of Egypt's Arab Spring; the underground abortion network in 1960s America; Greece's champion of the Parthenon Marbles, Melina Mercouri; China’s most powerful 19th-century ruler, and the doctor who was India’s 1966 Miss World.

Photo: Hend Nafea protesting in Tahrir Square in January 2011. (Copyright Hend Nafea)

Up next
Feb 28
Blood diamonds and the meeting between Florence Nightingale and Aga Khan III
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest, gemmologist James Evans discusses the creation of synthetic diamonds.We begin with the trial of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. It was claimed that h ... Show More
59m 57s
Feb 21
The Shetland Bus and toxic shock syndrome
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Guri Hjeltnes, an author and World War Two historian. We start with Nazi Germany’s occupation of Norway during World War Two by hearing about a secret res ... Show More
1 h
Feb 14
Italian history
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Scottish writer, editor and music programmer Arusa Qureshi.We start in 1989 when the British rock band Pink Floyd played a highly controversial concert in Venice. T ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2021
The women of Egypt's Arab Spring
In 2011 Egyptians took to the streets calling for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime had been in power for nearly 30 years. Their uprising was part of a wave of pro-democracy protests in the Arab world aimed at ending autocratic rule. Women were at the forefro ... Show More
10m 50s
Jan 2021
Egypt's Facebook Girl
A wave of popular anti-government uprisings swept through the Arab world in the early months of 2011. Many of the activists who took to the streets were inspired by social media posts. Israa Abd el Fattah was one of the first Egyptian activists to use social media. In April 2008 ... Show More
8m 54s
May 2021
Women of the Arab Spring
<p>A decade after the uprisings that changed the political landscape of many countries in North Africa and the Middle East, Kim Chakanetsa looks at what impact the Arab uprisings had on the lives of women in Egypt and Syria. </p><p>Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-American author and ... Show More
27m 26s
Oct 2022
The Iranian Revolution and women
Many women supported Iran’s 1979 revolution against the monarchy but some later became disillusioned. Islamic rules about how women dressed were just one of the things that women objected to. Sharan Tabari spoke to Lucy Burns in 2014 about her experiences during, and after, the I ... Show More
11m 4s
Nov 2021
Raphael Cormack, "Midnight in Cairo: The Divas of Egypt's Roaring 20s" (Norton, 2021)
One of the world’s most multicultural cities, twentieth-century Cairo was a magnet for the ambitious and talented. During the 1920s and ’30s, a vibrant music, theater, film, and cabaret scene flourished, defining what it meant to be a “modern” Egyptian. Women came to dominate the ... Show More
54m 50s
Mar 2021
Women and Power in Ancient Egypt
<p>Kara Cooney has been studying 6 of the remarkable female pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. In this episode she explains why many of them have been forgotten, and others regularly misrepresented. Professor of Egytian Art and Archaeology at UCLA, Kara introduces us to the lives and rul ... Show More
1h 12m
Feb 2024
Nefertiti
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who inspired one of the best known artefacts from ancient Egypt. The Bust of Nefertiti is multicoloured and symmetrical, about 49cm/18" high and, despite the missing left eye, still holds the gaze of onlookers below its tall, blue, flat t ... Show More
49m 50s
Nov 2014
Hatshepsut
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, whose name means 'foremost of noble ladies'. She ruled Egypt from about 1479 - 1458 BC and some scholars argue that she was one of the most successful and influential pharaohs. When she came to the throne, Egypt was ... Show More
45m 42s
Jan 2021
Yemen's 2011 uprising
Inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt young Yemenis took to the streets in January 2011. Ishraq al-Maqtari was a lawyer and women's rights activist from the southwestern city of Taiz. She took her two young daughters on the first demonstration in her home town. She has been spe ... Show More
8m 57s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami