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Woman's Hour: Ghislaine Maxwell verdict, Novelist Susie Boyt, Girls' education in Afghanistan, Disability rights activist Abia Akram

Ghislaine Maxwell verdict, Novelist Susie Boyt, Girls' education in Afghanistan, Disability rights activist Abia Akram

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Ghislaine Maxwell verdict, Novelist Susie Boyt, Girls' education in Afghanistan, Disability rights activist Abia Akram

Pakistani disability rights activist, Abia Akram  - one of the BBC's 100 Women in 2021.

The verdict in the Ghislaine Maxwell case and its impact on women coming forward in future, Susie Boyt on her latest novel Loved and Missed, and girls' education in Afghanistan.

Ghislaine Maxwell is facing the prospect of spending the rest of her life in jail after a jury in New York found her guilty of grooming and sex trafficking teenage girls to be abused by the sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.  What impact will this high profile case have on future cases f alleged sexual abuse against women and girls?   Andrea talks to Harriet Wistrich, who is the founder and director of the Centre for Women’s Justice and a solicitor.

It's now 100 days that teenage girls in Afghanistan have been banned from going to school in the majority of provinces. Yesterday, former prime minister Gordon Brown who is now UN special envoy for global education said 'we're sleep-walking towards the biggest humanitarian crisis of our times in Afghanistan. Andrea discusses the situation, particularly for women and girls, with the BBC Correspondent Yalda Hakim.

We've been talking to women about their scars. Today Laura, a burns survivor, tells her story

Many will have had empty chairs at the Christmas dinner table this year, for lots of different reasons. In Susie Boyt's novel Loved and Missed there is a particularly memorable Christmas dinner scene. In order to see her daughter on Christmas Day Ruth has to improvise. Susie joins Andrea to describe how people try to help and love others in the most difficult of circumstances.

Abia Akram is a Pakistani disability rights activist. She is the founder of the National Forum of Women with Disabilities in Pakistan, and a leading figure within the disability rights movement in the country as well as in Asia and the Pacific. She has been named as one of the BBC's 100 Women in 2021.  She joins Andrea to discuss how she became involved in this work and what more there is to do.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood
Producer: Louise Corley

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Ghislaine Maxwell verdict, Novelist Susie Boyt, Girls' education in Afghanistan, Disability rights activist Abia Akram

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