BBC World Service languages celebrate Nowruz
The BBC World Service’s languages teams, reaching audiences in Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Pakistan as well as diaspora audiences around the world, will be bringing rich and festive content across platforms, celebrating the holiday of Nowruz.
Published: 15 March 2016
A festival marking the beginning of spring for many communities across a vast region, Nowruz (also known as Nowrooz, Novruz and Noruz) is a celebration of renewal and new life.
The three-hour Nowruz show on BBC Persian TV, radio and online will start at 03:30 GMT on Sunday 20 March - an hour before the Spring Equinox. Pre-recorded in London on an impressive set with specialised lighting, and with an Iranian, Afghan and Tajik audience, it brings pop legends Shahram Shabpare, the Black Cats band and Faramarz Assef, together with Iranian underground singers Sasy Mankan and Hossein Tohi, to our audiences internationally.
The BBC Persian Nowruz show also features Tajikistan’s most famous singer, Mehrinegar Rustam; women’s world kickboxing champion, Farinaz Lari, who will present a fun boxing competition; the Paralympic champion and musician Amir Kamali; Lex Leo, Iranian-South African musician and charity runner also known as 'Dr Smile', who performs Iranian-African fusion music and the Iranian political cartoonist Touka Neyestani.
The BBC Afghan service in Pashto and Dari will bring its audiences Nowruz celebrations from Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora as well as from Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, India and Pakistan on radio, TV and online. The three-hour morning special, from 01.30 GMT on Sunday 20 March, will be delivered by BBC Uzbek’s Luiza Khudaykulova who will join Harun Yosufi and Spin Tanay reporting in Pashto and Dari on the celebrations from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
The BBC Urdu journalist Adel Shahzeb will present the celebrations from Pakistan. Sana Safi and Spin Tanay will host a special edition of the new BBC Pashto TV programme, BBC Naray Da Wakht (BBC World Right Now) which will feature special musical guests and features. All these programmes will also be available on our digital platforms.
Short videos on the BBC Azeri website and social-media channels will feature the BBC World Service journalists who cover countries from Argentina to Zanzibar.
Notes to Editors
BBC World Service delivers news content around the world in English and 28 other language services, on radio, TV and digital, reaching a weekly audience of 210 million. As part of BBC World Service, BBC Learning English teaches English to global audiences. For more information, visit bbc.com/worldservice
The BBC attracts a weekly global news audience of 283 million people to its international news services including BBC World Service, BBC World News television channel and bbc.com/news
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