In the third episode in our series on Iran, Jo Glanville meets Professor Karima Bennoune, Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and former UN rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. Professor Bennoune is leading a campaign for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime against humanity. The term describes the institutionalised oppression of women based on gender. Professor Bennoune, alongside campaigners in Afghanistan and Iran, wants to change that, and is calling for gender apartheid to be included in a UN treaty to prevent and punish crimes against humanity.
Digital freedom in Iran
In a new four-part podcast series of Boundaries Expression, journalist Jo Glanville talks to human rights advocates about the state of online freedom in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the future for freedom of expression. More than two years since the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the series investigates the impact of the violent state crackdown, the restrictions on digital freedom of expression, and the fight for justice and accountability.
Episode 2: The search for justice
Jo Glanville meets Gissou Nia, founder and director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council, and Bahar Saba, a senior researcher at ARTICLE 19. They discuss the aftermath of the brutal crackdown on the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022 and the fight for accountability for the victims. As a landmark UN Fact-Finding Mission continues its investigation into human rights violations and crimes under international law related to the protests in Iran, the podcast’s guests consider the Iranian authorities’ ongoing repressive response to the protesters, the challenges for collecting evidence, historical and systemic impunity and the pursuit for justice.
Jo Glanville is a journalist and audio producer. She regularly produces and presents documentaries for the BBC. Her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times and London Review of Books, among other publications. She was an award-winning editor of Index on Censorship and a former director of English PEN. She is editor of Looking for an Enemy: eight essays on antisemitism (Short Books/WW Norton) and Qissat: short stories by Palestinian women (Telegram/Saqi).
Follow ARTICLE 19 on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/article19org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARTICLE19org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/article19/
DIGITAL FREEDOM IN IRAN
In a new four-part podcast series of Boundaries Expression, journalist Jo Glanville talks to human rights advocates about the state of online freedom in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the future for freedom of expression. More than two years since the Woman Life Freedom protests, the series investigates the impact of the crackdown, the restrictions on digital freedom of expression, and the fight for justice and accountability.
EPISODE 1: THREATS AND SOLUTIONS
Jo Glanville meets Afsaneh Rigot, author of ARTICLE 19’s groundbreaking report Queer Resistance to Digital Oppression in the Middle East and North Africa, and Mahsa Alimardani, Senior Programme Officer for Middle East and North Africa at ARTICLE 19. Following five years of extensive research, interviews and surveys, the report gives an in-depth insight into the threats to digital expression with far-reaching recommendations that are already making a difference for protecting a marginalised community on the front line. The podcast highlights how Iran targets the queer community online through multiple methods of repression and discusses solutions for protecting the community’s privacy and communications.
Follow ARTICLE 19 on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/article19org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARTICLE19org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/article19/
In June 1989, the Chinese government launched a crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. It was a brutal response to a peaceful movement for political and economic reform across China.
To this day, no one knows how many were killed, but estimates are in the thousands. China continues to erase all memory of those events from national history - both within the country and beyond its borders.
On the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Boundaries of Expression assesses the legacy of the crackdown and the impact of a generation of censorship in a conversation with human rights activist Fengsuo Zhou, a student leader of the protests 35 years ago, and Michael Caster, Asia Digital Programme Manager, ARTICLE 19.
Presenter: Jo Glanville
Producers: Michael Caster and Jo Glanville
Studio manager: Aamir Yaqub
Mixed by Julian Wharton and recorded at Bison Studios, London
Archive: CNN
Tune in to hear personal stories, historical insights, and a call to action for defending human rights and freedom of expression.
In this episode, we're focusing on the LGBTQI+ community and the limits on their right to protest around the world.
Jo Glanville speaks to Rita Nketiah, a queer feminist activist in Ghana, about the tabling of a draconian private member’s bill which will introduce a five-year sentence for anyone identifying as LGBTQI+, and imposes a duty for all Ghanaians to denounce members of the community, which also carries a five-year sentence.
Nicola Kelly speaks to Marko Mihailović, a leading LGBTQI+ activist based in Belgrade who successfully ran the city's campaign to host the pan-European EuroPride in 2022. He describes the atmosphere in the lead-up to the event and crackdowns on the community from far-right groups, religious groups and other opponents, which initially led to the cancellation of the march.
