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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: Reporting the Disappeared

Documentaries

Sri Lanka's Disappeared

02/09/2016 GMT

Reporting the Disappeared

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Reporting the Disappeared

Telling the stories of the disappeared in Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Telling the stories of the disappeared; battles over a Bengali soap; the legend behind a Moroccan marriage festival and the artistic side of Soviet housing blocks.

30th August is International Day of the Disappeared - a day to recognise those who have gone missing around the world through war, political conflict and natural disaster. But how do you tell the stories of the disappeared when they are shrouded in mystery and often heavily burdened with emotion? From Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Kaura Abubakar, Haroon Rashid and Thirumalai Manivannan share their experiences.

Kiranmala, warrior princess  
A fictitious warrior princess has got such a hold on imaginations in Bangladesh that fights have broken out between rival fans.  Kiranmala is the heroine of an Indian-made television drama named after her, which has become wildly popular.  What's the appeal, and why's it causing Bangladeshis to come to blows?  Over to Shahnaz Parveen of BBC Bangla.

The Lakes of Tears
Marwa Mamoon presents a weekly radio programme for BBC Arabic called Story Shop. She ransacks history books and internet sources to find stories for listeners, like one she shares with the Fifth Floor this week - the legend behind an annual marriage festival in the mountains of Morocco. 

Meeting the Iron Lady of Manipur
This week, Indian protester Irom Sharmila left hospital and returned to normal life after 16 years on hunger strike. Irom is from the state of Manipur, bordering Myanmar, where there has been an insurgency since the foundation of modern India. BBC Hindi's Vandana Dhand travelled to Manipur to report on the end of this extraordinary protest.  She shares her impressions.

Art of Soviet Living
During the Soviet era, enormous and soulless grey apartment blocks were built across the vast territory - and they're still home to many people today. But despite their dark corridors and bleak iron staircases, these blocks were, and indeed continue to be, a source of inspiration for a whole range of artists across the former Soviet Union. Tatyana Movshevich and Alexander Zhuravlyov from BBC Russian explain. 

And Fifi Haroon shares her favourite stories from the world wide web this week.


Photo: Tamil demonstrators hold photos of their relatives who disappeared during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Credit: Buddhika Weerasinghe/GettyImages.

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