Weekend Woman's Hour: Women in Afghanistan, Pockets and women’s clothing, Russia’s Mother Heroine Award

It has been a year since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. The country is in economic crisis, there are droughts and the lives of women and girls have been impacted hugely. We hear from the first female deputy speaker for the Afghanistan Parliament Fawzia Koofi, the former Women’s Minister Hasina Safi and Samira Sayed Rahman, from the International Rescue Committee. They will discuss access to education for girls and what role the international community should play.

We had Beatlemania in the sixties and then and fans of Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, K-Pop’s BTS and Beyonce. But what is a fangirl? We discuss a subculture of women that have often been ridiculed and marred as hysterical, obsessive, juvenile and embarrassing and ask whether fangirls have been misunderstood? We hear from playwright and songwriter, Yve Blake who has created the award-winning musical ‘FANGIRLS’ that’s currently touring at Sydney Opera House and Hannah Ewens, a music writer at Rolling Stone, a former fan girl and author of ‘Fan girls: Scenes from Modern Music Culture’.

New research shows increasing numbers of young women in the UK are suffering injuries and other health problems because of the growing popularity of anal sex among straight couples. Increased rates of faecal incontinence and anal sphincter injury have been reported in women who have anal intercourse according to a report recently published in the British Medical Journal. We hear from one of the authors of the report - Lesley Hunt who is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - and also from Claudia Estcourt from the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV.

If you're a mother in Russia and have ten children, you'll now be rewarded by the President. That's because Vladimir Putin is bringing back the “Mother Heroine” award which Joseph Stalin introduced in 1944 to encourage large families after tens of millions Soviet citizens died in the Second World War. This time around, women will get a one-off payment of one million roubles - that's £13,500 - after their tenth child is one years old, as long as the other nine children are still alive. Mothers will also get gold medals with the Russian flag on and the country’s coat of arms. Dr Jenny Mathers is a Senior Lecturer of International Politics at Aberystwyth University, and an expert on Russian politics and security.

We have a performance of ‘I do this all the time’ from the artist Self Esteem

And pockets - do you get overjoyed when you realise your dress has pockets, and do you get angry when you realise those new pair of jeans have fake ones? Data tells us that the majority of women want pockets on our clothes but don’t always get them. Comedian Tiff Stevenson tells us about her love for pockets. Fashion historian Amber Butchart delves into the fascinating history of women’s pockets - from tie round the waist bags to the Suffragette suit, she explains how pockets have evolved over time influenced by surrounding, politics and cultures.

Presenter: Jessica Creighton Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed