Continuing our celebrations of the centenary of International Women’s Day, the BBC WST has been working with London’s Southbank Centre, taking part in the inaugural Women of the World festival.
Billed as a celebration of "the formidable strength and inventiveness of women", the three day festival featured special musical performances, debate, comedy shows and networking events.
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre explains how the festival is part of a rich tradition of using art for social change:
"There was and still is a view that the arts are a luxury, but the human rights declaration makes arts a necessity… the WOW event is here to celebrate everything women do achieve. We should tell these stories more loudly."
"There was and still is a view that the arts are a luxury, but the human rights declaration makes arts a necessity…"
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director, Southbank Centre
With a focus on creativity, innovation, and social change, WOW was also a chance for some of the BBC WST’s key creative staff from around the world, to come together in London for a production workshop hosted at the Southbank, to tell their stories.
Whose voice is it anyway?
The production team from Nepal explored how Radio drama Katha Mitho Sarangiko (Story of the Sweet Sarangi) uses an innovative dramatic strategy and improvisation to examine issues affecting women. Shivani Singh Tharu is a drama producer who has been working on treatments to address gender-based violence:
"Improvisation helps us reach all backgrounds and be inclusive, we wanted to reach out and hear those voices that are usually excluded. In remote villages literacy is rare. We can’t use scripts and we wanted to involve people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. We audition on location and ask people to act out their lives.
"Improvisation helps us reach all backgrounds and be inclusive, we wanted to reach out and hear those voices that are usually excluded."
Shivani Singh Tharu, Radio Drama Producer, Nepal
"The women – and men – feed in their own experiences. It has allowed us to be more accurate with the characters and for them it’s a place where they could express themselves."
The team tell stories from the viewpoints of a range of characters from different ethnic, social, cultural and religious backgrounds.
From Ambridge to Afghanistan
Felicity Finch, best-known for her portrayal of Ruth Archer in the long-running BBC Radio 4 soap The Archers, led a discussion on the role of radio soaps in tackling stigma and addressing social change.
Beyond the fictional world of Ambridge, Felicity also works as a features reporter producing features for Woman's Hour on issues such as young girl marriages and maternal mortality.
Woman’s Hour in the UK was also the inspiration behind BBC WST-produced Afghan Woman's Hour. That programme’s first presenter and producer Zarghuna Kargar described how using media formats creatively has enabled her to tell personal and emotional stories from women living in a traditional and deeply religious society.
"We are able to share problems and raise issues. One woman for instance wrote a letter to us describing how her life had been destroyed because she didn’t bleed on her wedding night with her husband considering this ‘proof’ that she wasn’t a virgin bride. We broadcast her letter and a doctor came on the programme to discuss the reasons why she might not bleed."
For Zarghuna, there were so many stories from her fellow countrywomen that she didn’t leave the tales within the programme:
"My involvement helped me make big decisions about my own life and choices. I felt empowered to write a book about these women’s stories. I wanted to tell people and show them how story-telling and sharing voices can inspire and feed change."
An incredibly full workshop and festival programme made for an inspiring few days that both celebrated the potential and achievement of women, whilst looking at serious obstacles still faced by many around the world.
A fitting climax to the celebrations of International Women’s Day, we’re already looking forward to next year.
