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Episode details

World Service,21 Aug 2020,40 mins

Breaking taboos in Iran

The Fifth Floor

Available for over a year

The taboo of domestic violence in Iran is being tackled by a podcaster who calls herself Maryam. She tells the story of her own abusive marriage, and is joined in each podcast by other women who share their experiences. Nooshin of BBC Monitoring explains why this taboo persists in her home country. From the streets of Belarus to Franco’s Spain: the story of a song The anthem being sung by protesters on the streets of Belarus has a story that starts in 1960s Spain, during the regime of General Franco. It was written by a Catalan singer-songwriter and is a call for unity of action to achieve freedom. Since then it has had several new lives in different countries, where many are unaware of its origins. BBC Mundo’s Enric Botella, who’s from Catalonia, tells the story. Changing attitudes to dogs in Egypt The Grand Mufti of Egypt recently sparked controversy by announcing that dogs are not 'impure', in the religious context. It is a widely held belief throughout much of the Islamic world that dogs are unclean. Sally Nabil of BBC Arabic describes attitudes to dogs in Egypt. Nubia and her children Before the coronavirus lockdown in Colombia, Nubia Gaona was struggling to bring up her two sons as a widow in the impoverished countryside. But the family have turned around their fortunes and become famous in Colombia – by putting their lives on YouTube. The BBC’s Daniel Pardo, who's based in the capital Bogota, has been to meet them. My Hometown: Dar es Salaam Another chance to visit hometown Dar es Salaam in the company of Zuhura Yunus of BBC Swahili, as she sneaks out of school and goes dancing. Picture: Iranian women in Tehran Credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images

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