Our Voices, Our Choices

Can economic rights alone bring radical change for women? In this podcast we go to the Middle East and north Africa to discover that real economic empowerment is about so much more than just jobs. It’s about dignity, power and daring to imagine. On a trip across the region we hear from Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Jordan. From sextortion to discriminatory laws, we learn about what’s holding women back and we discover how sustainable economic empowerment is tightly interwoven with gender justice. Only by confronting current power structures and only by daring to re-imagine our economy can women enjoy genuine economic empowerment.

A podcast by Abby d’Arcy.

Illustration: CC BY NC ND 4.0 Arinda Craciun

LGBT rights worldwide are on a knife-edge. This podcast probes the states taking progressive leaps in LGBT rights alongside the many places where homosexuality is still illegal and transgender people are forced to lead double lives. We go to Brazil for a mass gay wedding hosted in response to the election of President Jair Bolsonaro. We talk to the Indian man who helped topple a 160-year ban on homosexuality and we listen to political protest pop from Uganda from an activist risking her life to speak out. We ask what impact the growing right-wing has had on LGBT rights and ponder whether human rights are still heterosexual?

A podcast by Abby d’Arcy and Marlene Melchior.

Illustration: CC BY NC ND 4.0 Arinda Craciun

Women and girls just want to have fundamental human rights! That’s what we hear in this podcast. Yet many states restrict their reproductive rights and regulate abortion alongside murder in their criminal codes.

This podcast takes us to Ireland to find out how they managed to liberalise a very strict 8th amendment. We learn about 11-year old Lucia, an Argentine denied her right to abortion, and about how Malawi is dragging its abortion laws out of the 1800s. Final stop is China where despite continued forced abortions and strict family policies women are discovering their human rights.

A podcast by Abby d’Arcy and Marlene Melchior.

Illustration: CC BY NC ND 4.0 Arinda Craciun

Global female protest is rocking the status quo. Unusually, it's mothers, daughters, even grandmothers coming together and discovering the power of protest, taking to the streets and to social media in unprecedented numbers. This is a podcast about women and their diverse tools of protest which are shifting mindsets and changing laws. We meet an American mum part of a quiet local movement which went unnoticed until it changed the face of US politics. We meet a Pakistani social media star who risked her life on social media to speak out. We hear from the Kenyan woman who kickstarted a campaign to successfully criminalise stripping, and learn about families of Polish women who averted an abortion ban.

Illustration: CC BY ND NC 4.0 Arinda Craciun