When Tunisia led on women's rights

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes including the story behind Mick Jagger and David Bowie's duet for Live Aid in 1985 and the Chinese artist who was jailed for his art inspired by the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. He speaks to music journalist ... Show More

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service, all related to trains and journeys which have helped to shape our world.Our guest Nicky Gardner, travel writer and co-author of Europe by Rail: the Definitive Guide, discusses t ... Show More

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.This programme includes outdated and offensive language.It’s 50 years since the original Jaws film was released in cinemas across America. The movie premiered on 20 June 1975. Ou ... Show More

This 1956 march was a protest against pass laws that were part of South Africa’s system of apartheid – and specifically the requirement that women carry passes. The protest was simultaneously part of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the movement for women’s rights ... Show More

One of the leading figures in Nigeria's fight for democracy was Margaret Ekpo, a feminist politician and trades union leader. After Nigerian independence in 1960, Ekpo became an MP and a hero to a generation of Nigerians - men and women. Rebecca Kesby tells the story of her life. ... Show More

Début 2022, Anahid Djalali demande à son amie Juliette Rauwel de l'accompagner en Iran. Ce pays qui a vu naître ses parents, elle ne l'a jamais connu: depuis quarante ans, les islamistes font la loi et son père est trop engagé politiquement pour pouvoir y retourner. Anahid Djalal ... Show More

“Femme ! Vie ! Liberté !” : depuis septembre 2022, ce slogan féministe venu d’Iran parcourt le monde entier. Apparu après le décès de Jina Mahsa Amini le 16 septembre 2022 – une femme iranienne et kurde de 22 ans tuée par la police des mœurs pour avoir mal porté son voile – cette ... Show More

Tunisia in North Africa was the birthplace of the Arab Spring, a wave of popular uprisings that shook or toppled authoritarian regimes in the region. But, after a decade of fragile democracy, in 2019 a new strongman, President Kais Saied, swept to power. He directed his campaign ... Show More

Music for sex, dancing, and watching the straight world go by… The explosion of Disco provides an extraordinary window into the tumultuous world of the 1970s, with its themes of sex, drugs, race and sexuality. By the start of the 1970s, America was a nation of dystopian gloom. Th ... Show More

The daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti were not just "ornaments" for their parents. Like many princesses, they also participated in the religious rituals and royal pageantry of the Egyptian government. In this interview, Courtney Marx (MA, George Mason University) joins us on b ... Show More

Between 1932 and 1945, hundreds of thousands of women and girls across Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army.Referred to as "comfort women", they were taken from countries including Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia to be raped by Ja ... Show More

In the 1930s, Lucky Luciano, one of American history’s most notorious mobsters, was finally taken down by a rookie prosecutor, Eunice Carter. She was one of the first Black Women ever to become a prosecutor in America. She changed the course of  history, but she has largely been ... Show More

In the 1950s, the transformation of the sleepy little town of Benidorm began when Pedro Zaragoza was appointed mayor. He started by getting pipes built to allow running water, then went on to pass a decree which allowed women to wear bikinis. Now, every year millions of tourists ... Show More