hello, this is bbc news with simon mccoy. the headlines: three british tourists, including a child, have died after their vehicle crashed while crossing a bridge in iceland. four others are critically injured. four in ten nhs hospitals in england have put up their parking fees in the last year. the new data shows that in some places charges have doubled. a woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the deaths of two young children in margate, kent. britain's most senior police officer, cressida dick, has suggested a no—deal brexit could put the public at risk if security cooperation with the eu is weakened. the defence secretary has said he has grave concerns about the chinese firm huawei being involved in upgrading the uk's mobile network. now it's time to take a look back at the bbc‘s 100 women season — and a special interview with the united nations‘ deputy secretary general amina mohammed. she talks to zeinab badawi about what her gender, identity and past experience bring to thejob. hello.

i'm zeinab badawi. now, a job here at the united nations headquarters in new york is the pinnacle in many people's careers. well, second in command at the un is a woman, the former nigerian politician, amina mohammed. she says herjob is amazing and humbling. in this special interview in the bbc‘s 100 women series, i'll be talking to amina mohammed about how her colourful past, gender and identity have helped shape and influence her thinking and actions as one of the world's most powerful women. so, deputy secretary—general amina mohammed, delighted to have you as a special interview in this 100 women series on the bbc. so, deputy secretary—general amina mohammed, delighted to have you as a special interview in this 100 women series on the bbc. here we are at the un headquarters in new york in the main reception area. these are the portraits. these are all men.

the former secretary—generals of the un. yes, you said it. all men. i mean, you know... lie, to hammarskjold, to thant, waldheim, perez de cuellar, boutros boutros—ghali, oh, kofi annan! we must stop here at kofi annan. amina mohammed, i know when you were appointed deputy secretary—general, and before that even, your mentor was very much kofi annan. in fact, you've described him as your touchdown. very much so. what did you mean by that? when i was first making a decision to come to the knighted nations, it was about mdgs to sdgs. that's the millennium development goals to sustainable development goals. yes. he was the father of the millennium development goals, and supported us along the way. so making that decision was about going to him for that wisdom he had in that quiet way, forjust saying to him, "these are the things i think,

and where do you think this all is in the scheme of things?" he was very good at encouraging you but giving you a reality check. and you could pick up the phone any time, you could visit him any time, at least i could, and he was there, he was always there for us, he was always encouraging the next—generation. he was very much about my future. you were very close to him, weren't you? yes, yes, yes, yes. he died at 80, of course, in august, rather unexpectedly for a lot of people, but he was working to the end with his dying breath trying to make the world a better place. he was marching for that piece that we saw in south africa. but then, you know, he did that quick journey to zimbabwe to encourage him to get across the transition of that election and young people, this is their future and to take it up. he was always pushing to make sure we attain all those ambitious hopes and aspirations we had, but with a reality to it. he would tell you how hard the struggle would be

and the journey and the pitfalls, but always saying, "you know, be very focused," and, you know, "just go for it. always just go for it." so this is the security council. yes, this it is. this is where you get real tensions... there's a couple of other rooms actually that are smaller, even more tense. this is really where you have... you have people come in. there's public debate. sometimes when it's closed, then it really is just the member states, the ten to 15 member states and their support and their missions. just looking at some of the more controversial issues that have been discussed globally. we've had the murder of the saudi journalist, jamal khashoggi, of course, which has generated a great deal of discussion about what is the appropriate response,

and so on and so forth. the protection ofjournalists, the promotion of freedom of speech, i mean, this is all part and parcel of what you do. our core values. we've had asia bibi, the christian woman in pakistan, who was released after spending eight years for committing blasphemy. do you see it as part of your own personal mission to speak up for individual cases like this? i think we do all the time, particularlyjournalists who go out to bring, as we'd say, the inside out, often in very, very dangerous situations, and they tell the stories and they should be protected. i think wherever we see these atrocities happen, we have to call forjustice, we have to call for, as we have done in the case of khashoggi, the independent review of what happened. you know, we must have an investigation, we must know

what happened, there must be justice for not only the victim but for his family and for all others that, you know, are suffering from the consequences ofjournalists that are being murdered doing theirjob, and doing it for humanity, i would say. you know, a number of these cases, if not for journalists, we would not know when to speak up loudest because something had gotten way beyond what the normal eye would see. you shine a light on the things that we need to be just about. why we're set up. why there is the charter. why we are celebrating the universal declaration of human rights. i think it's a reminder that without this global village. .. i call this the global town hall for our global village. this is really important our voices are heard, and that we continue to speak to those values and peace. so your security council belongs to you. 0ften doesn't feel like it, but i have to say, what we have in the un is a commodity called hope. so here i am at the united nations headquarters in new york.

when are we going to see a woman's picture on there? 0h, soon i think. i think we narrowly missed it last time and i think we will see it soon. i think everyone feels that the time is almost there. such great efforts were made last time, incredible women that came to the stage. for the first time we were actually interrogating prospective sgs. so i think it will be very soon. well, the sg, secretary general, is evidently not a woman, antonio guterres, former portuguese prime minister, then he chose you as his deputy. do you think in this case actually your gender helped, and the fact also you're from the global south was a bonus? i think it helped because first and foremost, we were looking at a vision that he has for implementing the sustainable development agenda, for really looking to find a way to prevent the crises and to sustain peace.

i think that he probably thought the profile of a woman, and one that's in development, would do that. there was a bit of positive discrimination, let's say... absolutely. but he did it left to right, he did it with his chef de cabinet and me. there were three of us and some people refer to us as the holy trinity but he was there, and either side of him is a woman, and i think that's an amazing signal to the rest of the system and to the world. that's not to say that you weren't eminently qualified for this position, because you were instrumental in getting the sustainable development goals, the sdgs in place, the world's poverty eradication targets. you'd been saluted for your vision and leadership by the former un secretary general, ban ki—moon. so you were known to the system, and a lot of people were very happy when you got that post. has it been as you expected? are you enjoying it? oh, i love challenges!

when people say, "we can't do this," i say, "yes, we can," and we get on with it. i think the biggest challenge was to move from what we'd committed to in 2015, which was massive, on the sustainable development agenda which has changed the paradigm of how we do development, to the paris agreement, to financing, and then to make that more than words. i think that's been the challenge and a half. sdg 5 is the one that promotes gender equality and promotes women's empowerment, and you have described that one as the docking station of all the other sdgs. what did you mean by that? i meant it wasn'tjust about as looking at the targets and the goal for gender equality, but if you look at it as a docking station for the other 16, every single one of those goals feeds off it, and the goal feeds into it. if i look at education, for instance, gender equality‘s got

to be at the centre of the education goal, as it has to be eradicating poverty, as it has to be in cities or energy, access to energy and the way that women need to be a central power of that for empowerment. there is a thread from that goal to others, and from those to the goal. that's really what i mean about it, you cannot take it alone, as an integral part of all 16 goals. do you see yourself as principally being there to make life better for females? i think for everyone, but i do believe that women suffer more disproportionately than men do. and it's again about the issue of where is it a woman sits in society, a girl sits in society, and is allowed in terms of their rights, and they're not.

they're not there at the beginning, beginning when they go to school, a boy goes to school for the chance of an education and be able to reach their aspirations, contribute to a society. a girl doesn't. so you have to try that much harder for the girl to get in. yes i do, what i want to do is not apologise for having to be a girl, and not to see it as something that's added on or, you know, it's a... what's the word for it? that we're seen as we should be grateful for being at the table. "after all, you've got 30% of you around the cabinet table." no, if we can find the capacity to be 70% around the table, so be it. what we really need to see is we have equal rights to all those things that allow us to be present, and to be effective and to be part of society and our economies, and we're not seeing that. you were the eldest of five girls in yourfamily. a british mother and a nigerian father, who was a vet and also a herdsman. yes. you were born in the conservative north—east of nigeria,

you're obviously muslim and you observe the muslim code of dress. i try! how did growing up in such circumstances in a female household, apart from your father and so on, shape your thinking? i think it had a great deal to do with it. first of all, my father, he was very close to his mother. as the eldest in his family, his mother was very special to him, and she allowed him the opportunities i suppose at that time to get an education. not everyone in his family, including the boys, it was the cleverest in the class that got it and he was the one in his family that got an education, the rest didn't at that time, and he was very protective of his two sisters. so we grew up knowing they were special, over and above the uncles. i think that that helped. but we also grew up in a community where everyone mattered. i mean, a sense the community in africa is a huge shock absorber

for any challenge that you have. so no matter where we were in society, because my father became a civil servant, and that, in northern nigeria, was a privilege, and so they would tell you that your children were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but he never let us forget where we came from. when you stepped down as environment minister in nigeria to take up the job of the deputy secretary—general, one of your fellow ministers said, "very determined woman. we tried to intimidate her, but it didn't work!" that's what they said about you. i didn't hear that one! absolutely. but your father then wanted you to come back to nigeria and he said, look, i gota nicejob working for you in an embassy but there wasn't that job and you ended up for more than a decade working in architectural practice in nigeria.

and you've described the atmosphere there as being a bit sexist. what kind of things were said about you? because being bi—racial, white mother, they kind of thought you were a bit of an outsider and maybe didn't understand the local language. yes, i think they do, they think you come from such a higher level of society and so therefore... because you're more fair skinned? you're fair skinned. as they say in nigeria, your blood is two. so they believe your privileged and you have a choice, so therefore you will take the white side of you, and you will be less familiar or less even want to be the dark side of you. i think that that was a little bit difficult for everybody to understand, that we spoke the language, that we very much were nigerians. my mother was, you know, very much about that, she said, "you identify with one and you make the most of the other." and i think that's what it's been. we were brought up as nigerians, as muslims. and nigeria, my village, my country has been, you know, the core of what i am, so i can't think otherwise. i know you're a great nigerian

patriot, but it's also sadly got a high level of violence against women, very high incidence of child brides, for instance, particularly in the conservative muslim parts of the country. i mean, that must cause you a great deal of distress when you see the very strongly patriarchal system resulting in this kind of discrimination and violence against women? it is, it is, and i think it is the duty for every of us who live these privileged lives and are educated to talk about it, because like poverty, if you stretch your hand out in your family, there is that abuse.

i know you won't mind my asking this but i know that your own personal experiences have informed a lot of the work that you do now to stop violence against women because you have described yourself as a survivor of domestic violence. yes, absolutely. surviving for me is about also acknowledging it, sharing it. it is very difficult for me to share because it is almost something that is considered a shame. when it first happens, you think it is your fault. everything they tell you in documentaries and movies is correct, and yet here i am, an educated person, deputy secretary general, at that time i was also a public officer, you don't want your children to know — they know by the way, if you think that they don't know — you are looking at your work and how that could be — that could be a big, huge issue for you because if the media get hold of it, then it could become another issue. you're afraid to tell your parents or your relations because you know

that their reaction could be even more violent and then you would be responsible. i do not want to compromise the privacy and suffice to just ask you how long the domestic abuse went on for and whether you succeeded to extricate yourself from it as soon as you could? yes, i think i did. it was not very long, i think a couple of years. long enough. one day is enough. i mean when this happens to you, there are people outside the door that are too afraid to come in, they can't believe what's happening, and then you realise how quickly this could be the end. it is the one time with all my stubbornness, i have to tell you, that you suddenly feel very vulnerable because this is about physical strength, and then whatever it is that you think comes out of your mouth becomes nothing, and now you're just trying to survive and looking to make sure that you do not look any different from when you went into the room in the morning because you don't want your children to know. so yes, i think we have to — we have to bring a society that really believes and actualises zero tolerance to violence against women. but just also looking at some of the other things that you have to do as deputy secretary general,

speaking out for those who don't have a voice, when you look around the world and you see the terrible situation going on in yemen, where the secretary general antonio guterres has talked about this being the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, 1a million people close to starvation, 7000 people have died in the conflict in the yemen, i mean, and so many of them bearing the brunt are women and children. do you feeljust sometimes hopeless when you look at these kind of situations? well, huge, you feel like it is a tsunami and about to engulf you, but then you realise that voice does matter and that we have a platform here to use that voice, and we can hang on to our core values and remind people who are committing these atrocities, for no good reason, for no good

reason, and the suffering is women and children, that you continue to shine a light on that and continue to speak very loudly. we need to be horrified, we need to show that this is, this is impossible and should not be happening in 2018. but are they listening to you... i think it is. you have described the united states‘s retreat from multilateralism, as it is often presented, as leaving the un under siege, and this must lead to some kind of emasculation of the united nations, if the principal donor, the united states, has cut off some of its funding? you keep going at it, it starts right from when you're at home. what you do at home to bring an end to conflict, we were part of bringing an end to the conflict where we had militants blowing up our pipelines in the niger delta. we never thought that that can happen but we continued to engage and we got to the point where they put down their guns and they handed them over and they reintegrated, so when things go very wrong,

it is now that you really need to draw on the networks and on the colleagues and on the people that you have and continue engaging. it is really difficult to engage with someone who totally defies the norms and standards of the core values that we hold. you mean president trump? i don't mean necessarily president trump, but i think that there are many people that it is very difficult to deal with. now we are used to that in africa, aren't we? for decades we have been dealing with leaders that should have been doing better for their people, but we engaged with them and i think that there is, there is a change, there is a grassroots change... but just sticking with the united states, you have john bolton backing the administration here, he famously said when he was american ambassador to the un that you could blow a few of the floors off, metaphorically speaking, and it would not make any difference. donald trump has in the past said the united nations isjust somewhere

where people get together, talk and just generally have a good time, and that's it. there is a kernel of truth in some of the criticisms that the united states are making about the un, it is an over bloated bureaucracy and there are reforms that the secretary general and you are spearheading, because it does need to be put in better shape for the 21st century, doesn't it? it does, we all recognise when we came on board that it is not fit for purpose. we have frameworks that are, so if we are going to deliver on the paris agreement climate change ans on the sdgs, then we cannot be in the same shape and form that we were in 19115. it is not going to work, and i think we have to do better at the country level, we certainly have to do better to deliver closer to where it is needed, and that is why the reforms are so important and the management on peace and security, we must have peacekeepers speaking to those on the political side to get prevention... but can you do that? the united states has pulled out millions and millions of dollars from the peacekeeping effort, that is going to compromise your efforts.

well, perhaps it puts stress on us to look for peace, because if the peacekeepers are not there, you're going to have look for peace. i know the peacekeepers have saved lives and sacrificed in much worse stages, but if the peacekeepers have seen that there is not going to be the peacekeepers and that crutch, maybe they will come alive to silencing the voice of conflict in africa. what next for you? and you have a career at the united nations but you've said in the past africa is my oyster, that phrase "the world is your oyster", that this job will be over in the blink of an eye and then you are going back to nigeria. i am going back home, yes. what will you do there? could we see a run for president of nigeria? oh no, i think very early on... you said you want to fix your country. i do want to fix my country, but i don't think you necessarily

have to be president to do so. i have served four presidents and i think we have made great impact on getting forward on some issues. i would very much like to be the touchstone for the next generation to know what it is we need to fix it, because nigeria is so many things to everyone and i think we need someone to bring us together. but the record on women in political life is abysmal, it is something like seven women senators out ofjust over 100, 22 out of more than 300 in the lower chamber. it is not good, but it can get better and it will not be about me getting into office, it will be about seeing how many i can put into office, and i think i go back with a certain amount of credibility, a certain amount of leverage among people and leaders, that i can open up those spaces. so i'm going home and part of fixing it... not yet though. no, when we are finished, when we are finished with antonio. has your gender, your experiences,

your identity influenced what you do? here at the un, being an african is that very important to the work you do, that you bring a very africa focus to everything you do? yes, i do bring the fact that i am an african, a woman of colour, that i also experienced coming from two very different backgrounds, so i understand two sides of the coin. all the time, i am thinking about this side and that side because that is who i am, but i am also a woman. i think women bring to the table this ability to think widely and inclusively with determination and focus. we deliver results, we deliver babies, we deliver food around the table, we make sure that our children get an education, we deliver, and so for me, i think that is what i am doing here, that to member states, a sense of pride that the united nations can come together, member states and this bureaucracy, in a much betterform, to deliver.

amina mohammed, deputy secretary general of the united nations, thank you very much for talking to me on the bbc‘s 100 women season. thank you. the weather has been pretty quiet, true to be known, through the christmas period and not because too many problems if you've been on the move and i think the rest of the day through the evening and overnight will be fairly quiet, mainly dry for the most part and quite a bit of cloud with notable exceptions we have seen great gaps in the cloud to the eastern sides of the pennines

and across parts of the south—west. the quiet spell is thanks very much to the high pressure centred quite away from the british isles but it extends influence across southern areas and we are awaiting the arrival of a weather front that should make itself known in western scotla nd should make itself known in western scotland as we get to midnight and then continues its journey further east through the rest of the night. at the same time the fog which might not have gone away from spots in the south—west will be more extensive come the norm, so bear that in mind if you're on the move. you have to wait for the weather front and it will move smartly away from the mainland british isles to leave a brighter prospect for a good part of northern ireland and the north of england and scotland. friday is a better prospect for sunshine and temperatures getting on quite nicely, nine, 12, 11 degrees. fog may linger in the southern counties. from friday into the weekend the

high—pressure is still doing its stuff for the southern half of the british isles and further north you can see rolling around the northern areas we have weather fronts bringing thick cloud and a better chance of rain across the greater pa rt chance of rain across the greater part of scotland, northern ireland and then coming down to the western slopes may be the top end of wales. further south again, quite a bit of cloud and the best brightness to the east of the pennines and again, really quite mild so temperatures in scotla nd really quite mild so temperatures in scotland well into double figures. sunday, not a great deal of change but something of a west and east split and the best of the brightness is out towards the east. if you have plans, i don't think the weather will get in the way. 11, 12, 13, really good for the time of year and then towards new year's eve, more plans, still dry but on the mild side. this is bbc news, i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at four. in iceland, three british tourists

including a child have died after their vehicle crashed while crossing a bridge. four others are critically injured. an increase in hospital parking charges — new data suggests four in 10 nhs hospitals in england put up their fees in the last year. my friend's mum's dying. i've been in to drop some stuff off, and it's just cost me three quid. a woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the deaths of two young children in margate, kent. britain's most senior police officer says a no deal brexit would potentially put the public at risk. we would hope that we will have as much as possible of the instruments we currently have, or something very similar,