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Episode details

World Service,10 Jul 2020,40 mins

Iran's female gamers

The Fifth Floor

Available for over a year

Lockdown has boosted online gaming everywhere, but when Sheida Hooshmandi of BBC Persian investigated Iran’s gaming scene she discovered a surprising number of participants are women. So what are the particular challenges for female gamers in the Islamic Republic of Iran? ABC…. It’s as easy as ABC, but learning your alphabet is trickier in some places than others. Fifth Floor class of 2015 takes us through their ABCs. Traditional Chinese Medicine Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, has seen a surge in popularity in China since the Covid-19 pandemic. Beijing recently considered making criticism of TCM a crime in the province, but this sparked a huge backlash amongst citizens. Yashan Zhao of BBC Chinese explores the differing views of TCM within China. Singing for Oromia: Hachelu Hundessa The killing of the Oromo singer Hachelu Hundessa in Ethiopia triggered huge ethnic unrest, killing more than 200 people. Kalkidan Yibeltal is based in Addis Ababa and explains why Hachelu meant so much to the Oromo people. The new cyclists of Dhaka BBC Bangla’s Rocky Shahnewaj is a keen cyclist. It’s the quickest way through Dhaka’s crowded streets, and keeps him fit. So when his social media pages started filling up with pictures of shiny new bikes in Bangladesh’s capital post coronavirus lockdown, he decided to check it out. Image: Iranian women watching gaming on smart phone Rights: BBC

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