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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

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The Fifth Floor: No guns on the Ferris wheel

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Taliban in Afghan fun park

11/02/2022 GMT

No guns on the Ferris wheel

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, No guns on the Ferris wheel

Memories of days out in Afghan amusement parks, and why the Taliban now can’t take guns

Memories of days out in Afghan amusement parks, and why the Taliban now can’t take guns.

Afghanistan's Taliban Cabinet recently issued a statement that their fighters should not carry weapons while visiting amusement parks.  It follows videos circulating online of fighters enjoying bumper car rides, as well as shooting for toys at the rifle range. BBC Afghan's Khalil Noori lived in Kabul until August last year when he was evacuated with his family. He shares his memories of days out in amusement parks, and the background to this story.  

An icy bike ride on Lake Baikal 
BBC Russian's Oleg Boldyrev took the opportunity of a far flung deployment to visit a frozen Lake Baikal, naturally with his bike. A place of ice stalactites, upended jagged ice shards, and strange, sci-fi sounding ice symphonies as the ice expands and contracts.  

Turkish inflation 
BBC Arabic's Shahdi Alkashif lives in Istanbul, and has been reporting on the dramatic rise in the cost of living.  And it's not just a professional assignment - with a large family to provide for it's a story that's close to home.    

The president ploughing a field for new year
Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc dressed as a farmer and ploughed a rice field with a buffalo during the Lunar New Year celebrations. It’s a ceremony formerly performed by Vietnamese kings, and the photos on social media received a mixed reaction, as Giang Nguyen of BBC Vietnamese explains. 

India's most renowned female activist
Sudha Barawaj is an activist and trade unionist, who spent 30 years fighting for the rights of the tribal people in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh. She was arrested in 2018 and then spent three years in jail. Soutik Biswas of BBC Delhi tells us what an eye opening experience this was for her. 

(Photo: Taliban fighter with gun sits on fun ride in Afghan amusement park, November 2021. Credit: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

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