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Woman's Hour: The UK’s only female arm-wrestling referee Kath Whitaker

The UK’s only female arm-wrestling referee Kath Whitaker

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, The UK’s only female arm-wrestling referee Kath Whitaker

Anita Rani talks to Kath Whitaker about her national championships debut on Saturday.

Anita Rani talks to Kath Whitaker as she prepares to make her debut at the national championships this weekend.

What comes to your mind when you think of ‘arm wrestling’? Burly men taking each other on to see who’s the strongest in a testosterone charged atmosphere? Well now there is a woman at the heart of this sport in the UK. Kath Whitaker is the UK's only female arm-wrestling referee and is preparing to make her debut at the national championships in Birmingham this weekend.

This week the cricketer Azeem Rafiq candidly described  the racism he's suffered. No one could fail to be moved by his testimony on Tuesday, and the other interviews he's given since - sometimes very emotional. His comments will have triggered something in people who've experienced what he's talking about, and know it’s true. We talk to the MP Naz Shah and Halima Khan who works in grassroots cricket. 

A new report by the Prison Reform Trust has just launched a new report on  how long sentenced women are “invisible” in prison policy and practice. We hear from “Jane”, a former long-sentence prisoner who talks about her experience of jail and by Julia Killick a trustee from the Prison Reform Trust 

In the third of our series on toxic relationships we hear from a woman we are calling Katy who feels that her earliest experiences shaped what she looked for and needed from her partners.

And we’ve music from Yazz Ahmed a British-Bahraini trumpet player and composer who is a pioneering figure in jazz in the UK.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Lisa Jenkinson
Studio Engineer: Tim Heffer

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