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Women in combat - on the frontline and in popular culture

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The Cultural Frontline: Combat and Culture: Women on the Frontline

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23/09/2017 GMT

Combat and Culture: Women on the Frontline

BBC World Service - The Cultural Frontline, Combat and Culture: Women on the Frontline

Women in combat: They're on the real frontline, so why so rarely seen in popular culture?

Women fighters on the frontline and in popular culture. The Russian film about the last Tsar's love life. Defying sexism in Iraqi Kurdistan. And bringing poetry to non-readers.

Tina Daheley discusses the reality and cultural representation of women in combat with actor Avital Lvova and writer Henry Naylor from the play Angel (about Kurdish sniper Rehanna), and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield. There's room for fighting women on the real frontlines, so why not in the movies?

Also - Russian film director Alexei Uchitel talks about his forthcoming feature film Matilda, based on the love affair between Tsar Nicolas II, the last Tsar of Russia, and ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya. What does the sometimes violent campaign to get it banned say about Russia today?

We hear from contemporary artist Rozhgar Mustafa, who is using her work to challenge discrimination against women in Iraqi Kurdistan.

And poets Yrsa Daley-Ward and Caleb Femi explain how they use innovative methods and social media to bring their work to new audiences - and the importance of their roots in Jamaica, Nigeria and England to their poetry.

Photo: A Kurdish woman fighter near Kobane, Syria. Credit: Ahmet Sik/Getty Images.

Presenter: Tina Daheley
Producer: Paul Waters

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