Original version

BBC World Service Online

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

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

The Fifth Floor: The women who joined IS

Documentaries

wives and members of IS supervised by female fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (credit: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)

05/04/2019 GMT

The women who joined IS

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, The women who joined IS

Sold a dream, trapped in reality: what next for the IS wives?

The women who joined so-called Islamic State; Sri Lanka's mobile planetarium; Eritrean national service; Rwanda genocide 25 years on; India's first-time women voters.

Thousands of women and children associated with foreign IS fighters are now in limbo following the defeat of the ‘caliphate’.  Tse Yin Lee and Matilda Welin are part of a BBC Monitoring team who have been researching why these women joined IS and what happens to them now.  

Sri Lanka planetarium 
Azzam Ameen of BBC Sinhala has been on the road in Sri Lanka with a mobile planetarium.  It's the creation of Tharanga Bandara who fell in love with the stars as schoolboy, and wants to spread his passion across the country.  

Eritrean national service 
An EU-funded road construction project in Eritrea has brought the country's use of national service conscripts into the news, with human rights groups saying it amounts to forced labour.  Tesfalem Araia of BBC Tigrinya remembers his own national service.  

Rwandan genocide 25 years on
Ciru Muriuki of BBC Africa’s Factfinder programme went to Rwanda, 25 years after the genocide in which 800,000 people died.  She shares her impressions of the country today, and tells a remarkable story of reconciliation.

Women first-time voters in rural India 
In the run-up to Indian elections, Anagha Patak and Piyush Nagpal from BBC Delhi have been to remote rural areas to meet women first-time voters.  Why are the issues they care about, like jobs, education and water scarcity, overlooked by politicians? 

Image: wives and members of IS under the supervision of a female fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces 
Credit: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Fifth Floor

The women who joined IS

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service