In this episode Amnesty International shares the story of Fatema Uzgun Nusrat, a woman human rights defender who is running a secret online school for girls and women in Afghanistan. Fatema was inspired to create the Behdukht Online Academy after living through years of Taliban rule as a child. Today she supports girls and women to access education in Afghanistan, the only country in the world that bans secondary education for girls and women. 

This special episode marks the 29 November, International Day for Women Human Rights Defenders. To find out more on the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan and take action, see Afghanistan: The Taliban's war on women

Credits: 

·       Presented by Lisa Maracani, Advisor and Researcher at Amnesty International  

·       Produced by Amnesty International and Joshan Chana 

·       Composition of some of the music is by Joshan Chana  

·       Edited by Guadalupe Marengo, Head of the Global Human Rights Defenders Programme at Amnesty International  

In the Mexican state of Guanajuato women used to be imprisoned for abortions or miscarriages for decades - Veronica Cruz Sanchez’s fierce campaigning led to their unexpected release. Now Veronica’s organization Las Libres is running a secret network of volunteers who are sending free abortion medication to women in the U.S. Tatyana Movshevich explores how the global movement of abortion rights defenders known as the Green Wave was born.

Namibian midwife Sylvia Hamata battles against double standards and abortion stigma in the climate which leaves many of her colleagues paralyzed with fear. Advocate Stephanie Willman Bordat shares previously untold stories of women in Morocco who have been ostracized by society and family for the impossible choices they faced. Later we find out how a human tragedy sparked a huge change in Ireland.

Amnesty International’s Tatyana Movshevich meets Venezuelan teacher Vanessa Rosales. When her 13-year student was raped, Vanessa helped her to get an abortion and was arrested for it. We also travel to Malta where the country’s only open pro-choice gynaecologist is running a phone-in abortion advice service – at great personal and professional risk.

Irish activist Sean Binder tells Amnesty International’s Tatyana Movshevich how his freedom was compromised while he was saving lives on an idyllic Greek island. Later we travel to Ghana - there a journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas works deep undercover to investigate some of the gravest crimes imaginable. 

(Episode cover image © Muntaka Chasant)

Queer Black activist Monica Simpson from the U.S. and Dalit feminist Durga Sob from Nepal live across the world from each other, but are both fighting against intersecting forms of discrimination that have been ignored for generations. Racism and caste-discrimination are rife and the two human rights defenders are facing grave risks because of their work.

Monica Raye Simpson’s ‘Freedom Song’ in episode 2 is from her album ‘Revolutionary Love’

Amnesty International’s Tatyana Movshevish discovers the story behind the watershed UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders which was adopted in 1998 after decades of diplomacy, negotiations and confrontation. She also meets a Chilean water defender Lorena Donaire whose life was turned upside down as she was tackling the catastrophic results of a mega-drought.

Lorena’s voiceover in Episode 1 is done by Selina Nelte