C-Section Brazil

Award-winning screen director Tope Oshin celebrates a new generation of Nigerian women film-makers who are currently reinventing Nollywood, the largest and most prolific film industry in Africa. She explores their distinctive approach to telling screen stories that better represent women’s lives and aspirations in Nigeria today.

Brazil is the C-section capital of the world. In a country where caesareans account for over half of all births and 88% in the private sector. BBC correspondent Julia Carneiro investigates what some call the “C-section epidemic”.

Indonesia has just conducted its first ever national survey on domestic violence. It found that 41% of women had experienced some form of domestic abuse. We hear about the work of a pioneering crisis and counselling centre offering holistic support, the first organisation of its kind in Indonesia.In Behind Closed Doors Claire Bolderson reports from three different countries: Kenya, Peru and Indonesia. The issue that unites them all is domestic violence. It’s not that the problem is unique to these countries - the World Health Organisation estimates that one third of women worldwide suffer physical or sexual violence by a partner - but in each of the three countries, we hear about different and often inspiring solutions aimed at combating it.Image: Ibu Yanti at her roadside foodstall, Credit: Claire Bolderson

Rates of domestic violence in the Peruvian Andes are particularly high - nearly double the national average. The shocking case of violence against Arlette Contreras Bautista, was caught on hotel security cameras, led to calls for greater action against domestic violence. In August 2016, tens of thousands of people marched through the Peruvian capital, Lima to protest against the country’s shockingly high rates of violence against women. We hear how some inspiring women are working together to raise awareness about domestic violence and putting pressure on their government to act.In Behind Closed Doors Claire Bolderson reports from three different countries: Kenya, Indonesia and Peru. The issue that unites them all is domestic violence. It’s not that the problem is unique to these countries - the World Health Organisation estimates that one third of women worldwide suffer physical or sexual violence by a partner - but in each of the three countries, we hear about different and often inspiring solutions aimed at combating it.Image: Peruvian women of the Andes, Credit: BBC

Unity is a village without men set up by Samburu women in response to domestic abuse. Claire Bolderson reports from three different countries: Peru, Indonesia and Kenya. The issue that unites them all is domestic violence. It is not that the problem is unique to these countries - the World Health Organisation estimates that one third of women worldwide suffer physical or sexual violence by a partner - but in each of the three countries, we hear about different and often inspiring solutions aimed at combating it.

All over the world women hold families together, work hard all hours of the day and have little power to change their lives for the better. To make that happen they need to organise. In a small corner of the Buenos Aires district of Argentina one woman has achieved something remarkable by doing just that. Aymara Val has been working with her neighbours to change their living conditions for eight years.

Sun City is one of America's biggest retirement communities and home to the Poms, a group of amazing women aged between 55 and 85. We follow the Poms as they rehearse for one of their biggest parades of the year. They train hard, squeezing into unforgiving sequined leotards, doing the splits and balancing as human pyramids. Aside from being a funny journey, their story is also one of courage in the face of mortality and high-kicking against ageism.

Sun City is one of America's biggest retirement communities and home to the Poms, a group of amazing women aged between 55 and 85. We follow the Poms as they rehearse for one of their biggest parades of the year. Their story is one of courage in the face of mortality and a high-kick against ageism.

Among the women that history overlooked are Yelena Malyutina, Queen Muhumuza, Dame Janet Vaughan, Rosalind Franklin, Nazma Akter, Sizani Ngubane, Salika Amara, Mercedes Doretti and Morfydd Owen. This special edition of The History Hour explores the lives and achievements of women scientists, fighters, musicians and trade unionists.Yelena Malyutina served in the women's bomber regiment in the Soviet Airforce during World War II. She was hit by anti-aircraft fire but managed to land her plane and survive internal injuries.Queen Muhumuza was an anti-colonial rebel leader in modern-day Southern Uganda. She and her supporters fought the British, the Germans and the Belgians during the early 20th Century.Dame Janet Vaughan was a doctor and scientist, and expert in blood diseases who worked in London in the mid-20th Century. Rosalind Franklin was a chemist who contributed to the discovery of the DNA double-helix. Her colleagues James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel prize for medicine for this work after her death. Nazma Akter is a trade union organiser in the garments industry in Bangladesh. She remembers the terrible factory fire that first shocked her into union activism back in December 1990.Sizani Ngubane founded the Rural Women's Movement in South Africa 20 years ago to help protect women's access to vital farming land.Salika Amara is a French Algerian theatre director. She takes us back to the 1970s in Paris when she staged her first play about the lives of immigrant women.Mercedes Doretti is a forensic anthropologist who has dedicated her life to uncovering the evidence of human rights atrocities.Morfydd Owen was a young Welsh composer who died in 1918. Her compositions have been rediscovered and published, and performed for the first time.With guests Professor Jane Humphries of Oxford University and Dr Amrita Shodhan, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University.Image: Group of women, Credit: Thinkstock

In 2004, Kenyan Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was an environmentalist and human rights activist who founded the Green Belt Movement in the 1970s. She focused on the planting of trees, conservation, and women's rights but repeatedly clashed with the government while trying to protect Kenya's forest and parks. Witness speaks to her daughter, Wanjira Mathai.