Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,27 May 2011,45 mins

27/05/2011

Woman's Hour

Available for over a year

Why a decision to invite the anti abortion group LIFE onto a government advice forum for sexual health has provoked such discussion. We ask whether planned cuts in free English lessons will have a disproportionate effect on women; what difficulties will this place on their ability to take part in their local communities? Leila Ahmed was the first professor of Women's Studies in Religion at Harvard University. She grew up in the Egypt of the 1940s, raised by a generation of Muslim women who never dressed in veils and head scarves. Today many Muslim women throughout the Islamic world and beyond are choosing to cover themselves and wear "Islamic dress". She joins Jenni to talk about this "Quiet Revolution". The Japanese Garden at Tatton Park in Cheshire, said to be one of the finest examples of a Japanese garden in Europe, is 100 years old this year. What makes a Japanese garden distinct from an English garden?

Programme Website
More episodes