sworn in, vowing to rule the country with an iron fist. the far right firebrand, often dubbed the trump of the tropics, has vowed to crack down on corruption and crime and hailed the end of socialism in the country. nasa's scientists have been celebrating after their space probe new horizons successfully flew by the most distant object ever encountered. this is the first image it captured of an icy world on the very edges of our solar system. they called it an historic moment. there is that shot. an 11—month—old baby boy has been pulled from the rubble of a block of flats in russia, 36 hours after the building collapsed following a gas explosion. at least eight people were killed and dozens feared trapped. now, it's time for one of hardtalk‘s highlights of 2018. zeinab badawi speaks to comedian, actor and disability advocate, maysoon zayid.

welcome to hardtalk, with me, zeinab badawi. my guest today is funny. she's a comedian, actor and a disability advocate. she who was born in the united states to palestinian immigrant parents. and since birth has been living with cerebral palsy, a condition which affects the brain and nervous system. maysoon zayid believes comedy has the power to transform the lives of disabled people. she also says her standup comedy shows help normalize the perceptions of muslims, when many seek to demonize them. can comedy really do all that? and where do you draw the line between what's funny and what's unacceptable? maysoon zayid, welcome to hardtalk.

thank you so much for having me. i really want to shake your hand but i shake too much to shake. laughs consider it done. maysoon zayid, you've said if there were an oppression olympics, you would win the gold medal. yes. why do you say that? i would definitely win the gold medal because i'm palestinian, i'm muslim, i'm a woman of colour, i'm disabled and i live in donald trump's america. you don't get more oppressed than that. we will come to donald trump's america perhaps a little bit later. butjust explain to us what does it mean to have cerebral palsy? so in my case my cerebral palsy was as a result of doctor error. the doctor who delivered me was drunk and so now i appear to be drunk for my entire time,

even when i'm sober. in my case, my cp makes me shake all the time and it effects my co—ordination. it is a neurological disorder that affects muscle co—ordination but it exhibits differently in different people with cp. you have said, however, "i have 99 problems and cerebral palsy is just one of them" — have you always had such a positive attitude towards your condition and where does that come from? i have always had a positive attitude towards my condition because i was raised as an equal by my parents. my parents acknowledged my disability, they accommodated my disability but they did not focus on it. so whatever my sisters had to do, i had to do. if my sisters were cleaning, i was going to be cleaning. if they went to public school, my parents fought and made sure that i too could go to public school. when i was born the doctors told my parents that i would never walk.

now, this is something really important. there's no shame in not walking, there's no shame in using a wheelchair, or a walker, or a cane, and sometimes people use the word "wheelchair—bound" but that term is incorrect. mobility devices free people. but when i was growing up, my father was aware that i'd be spending time in two separate worlds — in america and also in the west bank. so he was determined to teach me how to walk and he did. so you derive that kind of positive attitude from your very close—knit palestinian family, in particular your late father? yes... it was he who encouraged you, was it? my father encouraged me and my mother strengthened me. my mother is a tiger mum. so she showed no mercy. the other day i was on tv, i called my mum, i said, "what did you think?" she said, "your hair looked terrible" and it did and i was glad she told me because i learnt for the next time. my father was my cheerleader. and he had a mantra

and his mantra was "you can do it, yes you can can" and he really believed that i could do anything i dreamt of, and encouraged me to take chances and also to accept when i could not. you have spoken of how you would walk on your father's feet so that you could learn how to walk, and he'd be dangling a dollar note before you, in order to entice you into walking as much as possible. i mean, that is just one small example of how you do make jokes about having cerebral palsy... and also how he approached it in a fun way. you know, i always say, i walked miles on my father's shoes, but the dollar bill was really what worked the best for me because my inner stripper was so strong that i was running in stilettos by kindergarten. but do you think that, you know, that kind of approach, talking about it in that way might, to some people, strike them as though you are making light of something which after all is quite serious and is restricting for many people because of the way society deals with people with disabilities?

i think that talking about my disability honestly and with humour, makes it more accessible and less frightening for people and i think that applies to people with disabilities and also to caretakers and parents. i think it's so important that we destigmatise disability. my disability is visible but there's also so many invisible disabilities. and the stigma around disability is real. when someone is pregnant, the very first thing people tell them is "i hope it's healthy". we do not acknowledge the fact that there's a chance that it won't be. what i want is for people to see that, regardless of what disability a person has, they still have potential, they can still have joy, they can still have love. i often say, people think of people with disabilities as happy smowflake angel babies that never grow up and don't get married and don't have kids — we have the potential to live full lives, whether we are verbal, non—verbal, mobile, not mobile.

and i think that by approaching my disability the way i would any of my other 99 problems, it empowers people to be loud and proud about their disability and to not fear disability in others. but when you saw your more able bodied sisters and you saw how you perhaps could not do everything that they could, did you feel in any way angry or frustrated at any time? i did not really feel otherised or disabled until i got to college, until i finished high school because, in addition to my family, my friends were very supportive. i've had the same best friends since i was five years old. you were in a mainstream school and that for you is very important? yes, my parents had to fight for me to be in a mainstream school. when i went to start school, they wanted to send me

to a special school for children with down syndrome. and my parents fought to have me mainstreamed. i believe that if they hadn't fought for my education, i would not be sitting here on hardtalk with you right now. and i think that one of the most important things in the world is to make sure that children with disabilities worldwide... including those with down syndrome... including those with down syndrome, non—verbal, intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities — we all have a right to education and, sure, not everyone is going to be a heart surgeon — i certainly do not have the co—ordination — but we need to give people the potential to learn. but, as i said, you've made a living from being a stand—up comedian and making jokes about your disabilities, one of yourjokes is the one about the car park. i say that most people have dreamt of being disabled at some point in their life, because if you come on a journey with me, it is christmas eve, and you're driving around looking for parking. what do you see? 16 empty handicapped spaces

and you wish to yourself, can ijust be a little disabled but also, there is a flipside to that. i always use the disabled parking and some people don't realise that i'm disabled so we have to understand that disability does not all look the same in every person. sure but, i mean, makingjokes like that, it takes a lot of skill to take on what, for some people, is a bit of a taboo subject. where do you draw the line between humour and what ends up just making fun of somebody with disabilities, mocking them almost? i tell personal stories and because i'm telling a personal story, i do not believe that there's a line that i can cross. comedy is taking risks. comedy, you're always pushing that line. where is that line? is it where you say yourjokes might encourage somebody to mock a person with disabilities? the line i draw is that i do not find humour in cruelty

so i have stopped using words that are painful to people, i've stopped mocking things that hurt people because i want my audience to be happy and to laugh, i don't want to invoke their darkest memories, i don't want to invoke traumas and abuse and pain. and it is not censorship. it is always putting my audience first — i want them to laugh. because, i tell you, the british comedy actor, rick gervais, has made jokes about a dead baby, says, "outside actually breaking the law or causing someone actual physical harm, hurting someone‘s feelings is almost impossible to objectively quantify" — do you agree with that? i absolutely agree with that. i did several dead babyjokes on tour in belgium because i do believe that context matters, that anything can be funny and that comedy is subjective. when i say that i make choices, i make choices because i do not find being abusive funny

but, if someone else can take something super traumatic and make it funny, it is their right to do so and try so. do you think you have more of a right, in a way, to make comedy about people with disabilities because you are somebody with disabilities yourself. imean, for example, the late american comedian, joan rivers, made jokes about the holocaust and she said, "that's ok because i'm jewish." i feel the same way about disability. i do not find it entertaining or humorous when comedians who do not have disabilities mock disabilities or imitate disabilities. disability is part of who i am, it's my community... so it gives you a right? you can go further... it gives me the same right that a person of colour has a right to talk about being a person of colour. and having a disability, it gives me the right to talk about it. but i never pretend that disability is a monolith. i can talk about physical disability but i have no right to go on stage and mock an intellectual disability

just because i happen to be disabled. i think the fact that i have a personal connection allows me to talk about it in a way that others shouldn't, honestly. you have actually ended up on social media being the object of bullying. you have been called "gumby mouthed" and other things. i mean, that is the kind of risk you run, isn't it? i have been subjected to a lot of bullying online. in the past two years, i have been subjected to death threats. i often talk to the guys that do comedy with me, and i ask them, "do you get threats like i do?" and they never do. they have people saying that they want to punch them. i have people saying, "i'm going to rape you so that your father honour kills you." so it is a deep, deep frightening world out there but i refused to be silenced. and the reason i refuse to be silenced is, while i was subjected to bullying, i talked about it in my ted talk and when i did,

i had women, teens, girls, worldwide reach out to me and say "i've been bullied", "i've had fear, and knowing that you survived it gives me the power to survive it too." you respond to them, don't you, sometimes? why notjust ignore them? well, i'm a comedian and we grew up in comedy clubs being heckled and when someone heckles you, you have to take them down, it's a natural instinct. so i have a process and my process is, first, i try to educate, because you would not believe how many people are genuinely ignorant. if they fail to learn, then i mock them. i love getting a good joke in. but you are upset by the bullying too? i'm upset by the death threats, i'm disturbed by the bullying. the bullying does not make me go on screen and be self conscious abound my wiggling lip, or the fact i slur a bit. the bullying makes me go on screen and go, "i'm on tv and you're not, darling. watch me." it kind of empowers me, even though i could live without it. but death threats scare me.

you don't think to yourself at any time, i wish i hadn't sought such a high—profile or do you just accept that's part of the price you have to pay? i think if i had grown up with social media, i would never have stepped foot on television, but now it is my destiny and i'm not going to let anyone take me down. why not just forget your disabilities and carry on, you know, leading your life? i tell you what one british comedian, francesca martinez, has said about her cerebral palsy, she says, "i've accepted my cerebral palsy. i'd wasted years worrying about the way i walked or talked." she says she is no longer defined by cerebral palsy. she says, "a quick look outside my own tiny world was enough for me to feel guilty. millions of others live in war and poverty, and without clean water, food or shelter." disability‘s not a monolith. cerebral palsy doesn't define me, but it's a huge part of who i am. i accept it, but it's a part of my story and i'm happy to include

it in my comedy because it's part of who i am. it's a real thing. i want to take a drink of water right now, i can't. i need a straw. that's a reality. pretending that it's not a reality does nothing to lessen its impact on my life. you went to arizona state university and you studied drama there and you've said how you were very disappointed when there was a role in a drama which needed somebody with cerebral palsy and they cast an able—bodied person in the role. so i was a straight—a student in theatre. i knew i had talent, i knew that i was a good actress and i knew that i wasn't getting cast but i couldn't figure out why. so senior year, when they had a show about a girl with cerebral palsy

i was like, i was literally born to play this role! and then i didn't get the role and when i asked why they said it was because i couldn't do the stunts. the reality was the university was reflecting hollywood, which shuns people with disabilities. we are by far the largest minority in the world. we are 20% of the population and we're only 2% of the images you see on american television. and of those 2%, 95% are played by non—disabled actors. a lot of us in the disability community, which is kind of led by me, i'm kind of the queen of us, find it very, very offensive for a non—disabled actor to play a visible disability on screen. we think of it like race. it's not something that you can act. it's not — when someone plays cerebral palsy and they're twitching and flailing about, that's not what the disability is and it's offensive, inauthentic, and it takes away our opportunities.

so as well as being someone with a disability, you are also an arab american and another way you've tried to use your comedy is you've tried to normalise the perceptions of muslims when many are really seeking to demonise them. in 2003, you co—founded the new york arab american comedy festival and you travelled all over the world to showcase the talents of arab americans right across the entertainment industry. do you feel that arabs or muslims in the entertainment industry are also getting a raw deal? yeah. i mean, starting off with arabs, right, because arab and muslim isn't synonymous. arabs were trailblazers in american comedy. we had danny thomas and jamie farr. we were these great comedic figures. post 911, we became caricatures of terrorists and nothing more, and so that was something that i was really concerned about shifting and giving arabs the opportunity to be seen on screen as something other than a taxi driver or terrorist. but also, being a person of colour is a challenge and arab is considered a person of colour,

so you have to break through that barrier. but, you know... islam, go ahead... i was going to say, couldn't it be an advantage? 0ne arab actor said recently that when he complained about being depicted as a terrorist and saying that this was racial profiling, he was told you're lucky and you can use your ethnicity as a play card in an industry in which white actors are overlooked. no. that's an obscene comment, that people even consider that being a minority in hollywood is a good thing. it's not. we're still completely outnumbered. it's not... but you do quite well. it's notjust...i mean 0mar sharif, the late 0mar sharif, there's selma hayek, who's got arab heritage, there's wendie malick, tony shalhoub, rami malek won an emmy for the thriller mr robot. there are some who've made their names. so rami malek, put on screen by an arab. wendie and tony, definitely trailblazers. people break through, no matter who they are. there are always exceptions to the rule.

but the reality is i haven't been given that opportunity. i had to write my own tv show to get on television. i have a deal from my own sitcom called if i can can with universal studios. i can;t even get a guest role to practice before i star in my own show. that is how much discrimination there is. so when we have breakthrough stars, when we have people who defy the odds, it's because they defy the odds. it's not because there are genuinely more opportunities for minorities than white people on television. especially with disability. you said arab and muslim of course are not synonymous, and you're absolutely right, of course, but when it comes to the way muslims are perceived, the american actor samuel ljackson on muslims in hollywood says young muslim americans need to start

telling their stories in the same way that african—americans fought and found ways to make films about their lives and experiences. do you see people doing that? is it happening? do you think it should be? i do. i absolutely see people doing that, and i think i'm one of the people who is doing that. and i think i have a real privilege as a muslim because as a muslim woman, i am not what people picture when they think of a muslim woman, but i represent a lot of other muslim women. not every muslim woman chooses to cover. most muslim women are not being oppressed in america, where i live and where i grew up. so i think it's a great opportunity for me to have written a show with a muslim family as a centrepiece, where the father is devout, the mother is a doctor who doesn't believe in god, to show that muslims are again not a monolith. we're not all these one—note, screaming terrorists that we're depicted as on television, that muslim women do look like me, that you can be devout and have faith, and still live 100% acclimated

to the american lifestyle. and i think right now, they're trying to other us. some people think that muslims were born somewhere else, so people often say to me, go back to your own country, and i say, where? newjersey? or they tell me i need to accept jesus and i say i do, he's a prophet in islam. can you accept that he looks like me and not you? despite your initial comment about living in donald trump's america, when you look at all the censuses, opinion polls and so on, arab americans, not necessarily muslim americans, are actually quite well integrated as us citizens. when you look at the indices, they're better off than the average person in the population, they've got high education achievements and that sort of thing. so, i mean it's not all bad, is it? no, it's not all bad and again, arab is not a monolith,

some of us are more integrated, some of us are less integrated, but also 80% of arabs are christian and that has an affect on their ability to blend in to american society. so you see the problem as more of a muslim one than an arab one? currently i do, and that's different to a decade ago. right now, it is absolutely terrifying to be a muslim in america. why? we're under siege every day in america. hate against muslims is mainstream. courts agree with hate against muslims and we're not really given a voice to combat the negative images that are being displayed of us. do you experience it personally yourself? every single day. this anti—muslim sentiment? i feel the anti—muslim sentiment every single day. in what way? i was living in the new york area post 9/11 and i never felt this kind of hate and backlash and dehumanisation. i mean, first of all,

i do find it very disturbing that an american president can invoke and incite violence against muslims without any ramifications. and it makes me feel... he wouldn't say that, hejust says... are you referring to the videos? i'm referring to the rhetoric and the videos. because i mean he would just say look, i'm just stating facts, that there's a problem with terrorism that is committed by people of the muslim faith and he's just stating facts. that's what he said. but he's not actually stating facts. so as someone‘s who's watching it, i know that he's inciting violence against me. i know that he's ignoring the true dangers in america. i mean, in las vegas, 600 people were shot. that's a true risk. finally, you go to the palestinian territories, you've worked with refugees, bringing comedy as a kind of therapy to change people's lives. you've talked about how you use comedy for people with disabilities, muslim americans, that kind of thing. does comedy really have

the power to do all that? to transform lives and attitudes in society? comedy absolutely has the power to transform lives. i always say if someone‘s laughing at you, they're less likely to kill you, but also if someone‘s laughing, they're more likely to understand something that they never understood before. because there's a difference between lecturing a person or yelling at a person for saying something ignorant and getting on stage, doing a joke, and having them realise oh—oh, i'm the bigot, i'm the one that didn't know the facts. i'm the one who judged them all. this woman is muslim and clearly there's no reason for me to hate her, so maybe there's more like her. when i do it worldwide, it's less about islam and more about the disability because when i do comedy worldwide, i'm putting out an image a lot of people have never seen. a functional, independent disabled person. and it lets them know they have the potential,

or their child has the potential to excel in the same way that i have. maysoon zayid, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. you're so welcome. and by the way, zeinab, if i can can, you can can! hello there. after a bland week of weather over the festive period, the new year brought some contrasting weather conditions. colder with some shower, cloud up into the far north—east, a window of sunshine for southwest scotland and northern england. but thicker cloud further south and west, that was a weather front still to clear away,

and here we had cloud and some drizzle and it still stayed pretty mild. but behind that weather front, that's allowing that northerly flow to take hold and for the rest of the week, a stark contrast in the feel of the weather. that northerly flow will always bring the risk of a little more cloud along the east coast, but we start wednesday further west with some clear skies and a touch of frost to begin with. but it will be a sparkling start to wednesday, the further west you are, with some lovely spells of sunshine coming through. all the time, because of that northerly wind on exposed east—facing coasts, we could run the risk of more cloud and a few scattered showers across east anglia and that kent coast as well. but further west with the sunshine, temperatures generally 3—5 degrees, maybe out to the west, where we've got a little more coastal cloud, maximum temperatures of seven degrees. now, the high pressure stays with us for much of the week but itjust changes its position a little, and that allows the wind direction

to change very subtly. we still keep that northerly flow across those east coasts but further west, we start to drag in a return to a south—westerly, a slightly milder air source, but that will also bring with it a little more moisture as well and more cloud. so south—west england, wales, northern ireland, west—facing coasts of scotland could start off pretty cloudy and murky, maybe with a little bit of freezing fog in places. further inland, the best chance of seeing the sunshine, but again, still not a particularly warm day on thursday. highest values of three to nine degrees perhaps in the far north—west of scotland. as we move out of thursday night, we keep the clear skies and for many those temperatures are likely to fall away, again the exception perhaps the further west you are. but those temperatures will all tumble and we could have a widespread cold, frosty night across the country, maybe the coldest night throughout the week. 0vernight lows generally down to at least —3 or “4, maybe even lower in rural parts. but it does look as though

we will continue to see some lovely spells of sunshine on friday. indications of things clouding over a little though for the start of the weekend, and as we get into sunday, the high pressure could weaken off and we could see a weather front pushing into the far north—west, which could bring more significant rain. take care. all this is the briefing — i'm sally bundock. our top stories. a new path under a new president for brazil — far—right firebrand jair bolsonaro takes office vowing to crack down on corruption. here in the uk, a terror suspect arrested after the stabbings at manchester's victoria train station is held under the mental health act. thousands turn out in tokyo for emperor akihito‘s new year address — the final one before his abdication. a new year with fresh hope on trade — will positive comments from the us

and china translate to a resolution to the conflict between the world's two biggest economies?