Podcast Episodes

Polynesian Panthers

In the early 1970s, New Zealand’s government cracked down on Polynesian migrants who had overstayed their work permits.

They carried out what became …

3 years, 3 months ago

Umuganda: Rwanda's community work scheme

In 1975, President Juvénal Habyarimana introduced Umuganda in Rwanda, where citizens had to help with community projects like planting trees and buil…

3 years, 4 months ago

Dame Carmen Callil: Feminist publisher

Dame Carmen Callil, who died in October this year, founded feminist publisher Virago Press in 1972 to promote women’s writing.

In this programme firs…

3 years, 4 months ago

Campaigning against sex-selection in India

Over the last 50 years an estimated 46 million girls have been aborted in India.

The cultural preference for boys and the development of pre-natal se…

3 years, 4 months ago

Albania’s Stalinist purges

In the 1970s, Albania’s Stalinist leader, Enver Hoxha, launched a new series of purges against government ministers and officials, following numerous…

3 years, 4 months ago

The Little Black Book survival guide

In 1985, Carol Taylor wrote a survival guide for young black men in the Unites Stated who were stopped by the police.

Her son, Laurence Legall, tells…

3 years, 4 months ago

Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech

In October 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard made an impromptu speech in the Australian parliament setting out the misogyny she endured for years as…

3 years, 4 months ago

Arrested for wearing trousers in Sudan

In 1991, a law was introduced in Sudan which was used to control how women acted and dressed in public. It resulted in arrests, beatings and even dea…

3 years, 4 months ago

Theatre siege in Moscow

It is 20 years since heavily-armed Chechen rebels took an entire theatre full of people hostage.

They threatened to kill them all if the Russian gove…

3 years, 4 months ago

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…

3 years, 4 months ago