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Outlook: Outlook Weekend: Pick of the Week

Kellie Maloney, Günter Wetzel's balloon, Ahmad Sarmast

21/06/2015

Outlook Weekend: Pick of the Week

BBC World Service - Outlook, Outlook Weekend: Pick of the Week

Sex change boxing star; Fleeing Communism in hot air balloon; Musician defies taliban

Sex change boxing star; Fleeing Communist East Germany in hot air balloon; Afghan musician defies Taliban; From Eritrean child soldier to Swedish MP; Cape Town's animal sound man

Dr Ahmad Sarmast has been trying to revive traditional music in Afghanistan, after years of Taliban rule when music was banned because they considered it un-Islamic. His music school in Kabul teaches orphans and street children - and girls, which has angered extremists.  Six months ago, during a performance in Kabul, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the audience, killing one person. Dr Sarmast's hearing was severely damaged. But he hasn't been deterred.

In 1979 Günter Wetzel and his friend Peter Strelzyk were increasingly frustrated by the restrictions on their freedom imposed by the Communist government in East Germany. So they developed a daring plan to fly their families to the West. Risking imprisonment if they were discovered, they designed, built and tested a series of hot air balloons in secret.

Arhe Hamednaca is a member of parliament in Sweden. But he grew up in Eritrea during its struggle for independence from Ethiopia and took up arms with the Eritrean Liberation Front, the ELF - when he was 15 years old - in 1968. It was a long and bloody fight, and by the time Eritrea got its independence 25 years later, Arhe had been granted asylum in Sweden, where he went on to become an MP for the governing party. From Stockholm, Arhe told me about his early years in Eritrea.  

In the world of boxing, the name Frank Maloney has long packed a punch. As a top manager and promoter, he took several fighters from obscurity to stardom, including the former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. Frank was known for his macho and controversially outspoken character. But last year, Frank made a revelation which took all his former colleagues by surprise. He announced that he was now transgender and had begun to live life as a woman called Kellie.

The Iranian film maker Nima Sarvestani is on a mission. He's been recording the testimony of witnesses to persecution of opponents by the country's Islamic regime in the aftermath of the revolution of 1979. Nima says his own brother was hanged by the regime in the 1980s. He is concerned that those who remember what happened are now reaching the end of their lives. The revolution which overthrew the Shah of Iran was greeted at first with popular acclaim. But as the new government began to put down any opposition, Nima - who was then a journalist in the city of Shiraz - joined a radical left wing organisation.

Cape Town's historic Greenmarket Square is famous for its street performers. There are jugglers, dancers, mime artists - but one man stands out for his rather unorthodox talent. William Jafta is known simply as the 'animal sound man'.  Reporter Mohammed Allie went to see him in action.

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