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Outlook: Poet Salma Shut Away For 25 Years

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18/02/2013

Poet Salma Shut Away For 25 Years

BBC World Service - Outlook, Poet Salma Shut Away For 25 Years

During years of confinement Tamil poet Salma smuggled poems out and got them published

Matthew Bannister hears from Salma, a Southern Indian woman  shut away for twenty-five years. Salma found solace in writing poetry and managed to smuggle it out to a publisher.

Matthew Bannister talks to the Indian poet and novelist Salma about her arranged marriage and being confined to the house for twenty five years. During her confinement, Salma found solace in writing poetry and eventually managed to smuggle it out to a publisher. Her work challenges the conventions of the society in which she lives - particularly the treatment of women.  

We meet Rob Forkan who has set up his own successful line of brightly-coloured flip-flops. Rob lost both his parents in the tsunami which hit Sri Lanka in 2004. 10 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of the footwear goes to help orphans.

And the athlete, Janine Shepherd, who was rendered a partial paraplegic when she was hit by a truck during an Olympic training bike ride. Doctors didn't expect her to recover. But she not only learned to walk again -- she learned to fly.
Picture: Salma, the Tamil poet

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