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Woman's Hour: Stacey Dooley, Police culture, Novice rowers become champions, Afghan women update, Anne Boleyn

03/02/2022

Stacey Dooley, Police culture, Novice rowers become champions, Afghan women update, Anne Boleyn

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Stacey Dooley, Police culture, Novice rowers become champions, Afghan women update, Anne Boleyn

Stacey Dooley investigates the UK's mental health crisis in her new book

Reporter and TV presenter Stacey Dooley opens up the conversation about mental health in young people, to challenge the stigma and stereotypes around it.

Stacey Dooley has been presenting television documentaries for over 10 years – on everything from drug cartels in Southern Spain to illegal pornography in South Korea. Now the Sunday Times bestselling author has released a new book, exploring the state of mental health in the UK. ‘Are You Really OK?’ looks at – amongst other things – issues of PTSD, depression, psychosis; and what causes these things. Stacey reveals what she’s learnt.

Yesterday on the programme we discussed the culture of policing in the light of misogynistic, discriminatory and violent texts exchanged between serving officers between 2016 and 2018. They were revealed as part of an IOPC investigation at Charing Cross police station in London. These revelations follow the murder of Sarah Everard and the treatment of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman by serving Metropolitan Police officers.  We asked how can a toxic culture be changed? A mother, Amanda, contacted us while we were on air. Her son, George, is planning to join the Police later this year and she is worried but he is determined to be part of the change. They both join Emma.

Two women with no previous rowing experience have smashed the world record for the fastest female pair to row across the Atlantic. Jessica Oliver and Charlotte Harris rowed 3000 miles over 45 days in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, battling 30 ft waves, sharks and sleep deprivation. They join us to discuss the experience. 

Some of Afghanistan's public universities reopened yesterday for the first time since the Taliban took over the country, with female students joining their male counterparts heading back to classes. Girls are still not allowed to attend secondary schools, and women remain barred from many jobs outside the health and teaching sector. This is unfolding against the backdrop of a major humanitarian crisis.  Fawzia Koofi, the former Vice President of the National Assembly in Kabul and women's rights activist, updates us.

You know the rhyme “divorced beheaded died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” The first women to lose her head at the hands of Henry VIII was Anne Boleyn - and her story is so often characterised by that tragic outcome that we may have overlooked the fact that she was a feminist and ahead of her time. This is the view of Dr Owen Emmerson who has curated an exhibition at Hever Castle - Anne's childhood home - called Becoming Anne: Connections, Culture, Court. But can she be seen as a feminist when the word hadn't even been invented? Emma is joined by Owen and Tracy Borman, the Tudor historian and Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces who is currently writing a book about the relationship between Anne Boleyn and her daughter Elizabeth.  

Presenter: Emma Barnett
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Stacey Dooley
Interviewed Guest: Jessica Oliver
Interviewed Guest: Charlotte Harris
Interviewed Guest: Tracy Borman
Interviewed Guest: Dr Owen Emmerson

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Stacey Dooley, Police culture, Novice rowers become champions, Afghan women update, Anne Boleyn

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