Weekend Woman's Hour: Women in Afghanistan, Composer Gabriela Ortiz, Tourette Syndrome

Available for over a year

Five years after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, we hear how it has changed women’s lives in the country and beyond. Anita Rani speaks to 21-year-old Purvin Juma who fled to the UK from Afghanistan in 2021 and the human rights activist Shaharzad Akbar. The Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz won three Grammys for her 2024 album Revolución diamantina, and this week saw the work's UK premiere at the BBC Proms. Gabriela joined Nuala McGovern to discuss how this work was inspired by Mexico’s 2019 Glitter Revolution, the nationwide feminist protests sparked by the rape of a teenage girl by four police officers, during which activists covered Mexico City’s security chief in pink glitter. Dr Amanda Cole found out she had Tourette syndrome in her twenties. Now a professor of sociolinguistics at the University of Cambridge, Dr Cole joins Nuala to discuss her decision to share her diagnosis with her students. A serial sex attacker who had a 'morbid fascination' with sex has been jailed for the rest of his life after he was found guilty of murdering two women and raping a third. His sentence comes after police and the Crown Prosecution Service apologised over a series of disastrous decisions that left him free to roam the streets. To discuss the implications of this case, Anita was joined by Helen Millichap, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and director of the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, and the author and journalist Joan Smith. Kelly Latimer, flight test pilot and aeronautical engineer, is retiring this year after decades spent flying the world's most advanced planes, and even going into space. She reflects on a truly remarkable career. Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Kirsty McQuire