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17/06/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Sensitive Subjects

Tales of national treasures and social taboos in Libya, Thailand, Egypt and Argentina

From militia prisons to feminine hygiene: the things we don't like to discuss. Stories of national treasures and social taboos from Libya, Thailand, Egypt and Argentina.

Stories of the things people don't like to talk about - at least not in public. Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from reporters and writers around the world. 

In Tripoli, Tom Stevenson gets an unusually close look at the headquarters of one of the armed militias which have carved up the city's economy and security between them. The Radaa group says it's all about crime-fighting, not Libyan political infighting. But he's still not allowed a look behind the huge red metal door of the base's prison block...

Jonathan Head feels the weight of Thailand's lese majeste law, which protects the country's royal family from insult - and meets a family who found themselves on the wrong side of it. Yet he also hears from some of the many Thais who passionately defend their monarchy on any and every media platform. 

Claire Read has a story from Cairo of what happens when airport security meets social taboo - as a box of tampons nearly causes an alert at the baggage scanner. It turns out the lady who searched her isn't the only Egyptian to find these "small, bullet-shaped objects" a mystery. Why?

And in Argentina, Heidi Fuller Love visits a Biblical theme park pushing the boundaries between religion and kitsch - along with a transgender man who's been delighted by the current Pope's humanity to all.

Image: A screengrab from Thai TV on December 1, 2016 shows the Thai Prime Minister and Privy Council President General prostrating themselves in front of newly appointed Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn as he accepts the position as monarch after the death of his late father King Bhumibol Adulyadej in Bangkok. (STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

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