for allegedly plotting with foreign parties to destabilise the kingdom. in a video sent to the bbc, prince hamzah denied being part of any conspiracy, but said he's under house arrest and accused jordan's leaders of corruption and incompetence. new coronavirus restrictions are being introduced in india's worst—affected state maharashtra, as the country records the world's highest number of daily infections. on sunday, india recorded 93,000 cases. the country now has the third highest number of cases in the world, after the united states and brazil. emergency workers in the us state of florida are trying to stop catastrophic flooding after a leak more than 300 homes have been evacuated. of polluted water. efforts to plug the leak have so far failed. now on bbc news, global questions talks to two former

female presidents — one from africa and one from europe — who've both been trailblazers for women's rights for decades. hello, and welcome to global questions. with me, zeinab badawi. thousands of women all over the world are protesting against gender violence and sexism, and are demanding an end to the violation of their right. this week, we have two distinguished former female presidents, one from africa and one from europe, answering questions about why women still have to endure discrimination. that is global questions — sexism and violence against women in a patriarchal world. to bring you this edition

of global questions, our two panellists and specialists are joining us via video link from all over the world. let me tell you who is in the hot seat this week giving the answers. well, we have two leading global stateswomen who were co—chairs of the women's leaders network of the africa europe foundation. mary robinson was the first female president in the republic of ireland, elected in 1990. before becoming a politician, she trained as a lawyer. on leaving office, she became the un high commissioner for human rights. and ellenjohnson sirleaf there must was the first woman to be elected a head of state in africa. she was president of liberia until 2018. an economist by training, she was the joint recipient of the nobel peace prize in 2011 for her work in promoting women's rights and for her leadership during and after a liberia's civil war. welcome to you both. and remember, you, too,

can join the conversation — it's #bbcglobalquestions. we have lots and lots of great questions and i'm sure some really brilliant on those from a two panellists so let's get straight down to business and faith immanuel in lagos, nigeria. faith, your question, please? oh, good evening! i'm really excited to be here. my name is faith immanuel in lagos and my question is as follows — given our culture, why is there a sense of male entitlement? ellenjohnson sirleaf, this gets straight down to business, doesn't it? why does the patriarch you still exist? the long—standing cultural assumptions are what gave credence to the patriarchy. women have been addressing this over the years. fortunately, in more recent times as a result of this continued struggle on the part

of women, some of these assumptions are increasingly no longer valid and we need to continue to make sure we make that point. mary robinson. i agree very much with ellen. i think a lot of boys sense, in a lot of cultures, they are valued more than girls, then they see their role models — the president is a man, the prime ministeras a man, judges are all men, and it reinforces that sense that men are more important and therefore have that sense of entitlement. that's what we need to change. so both of you think it's a cultural problem, it's not something that can be addressed with legislation, because faith asks why there is a sense of male entitlement. and it seems to be resistant to even good laws trying to eradicate it. i think the laws can help. removing the laws that

descriminate can help and also a kind of an educational change based on equality. which is what generation equality, the forum that is taking _ equality, the forum that is taking place in mexico and paris — taking place in mexico and paris this year is all about. it's all about asserting the true equality and the more women move who high office in various ways and leadership at local deal, the more we will address it. laws will help but unless those laws are implemented and unless we have the environment in which the implementation is insisted upon by those in society, both men and women, then it is most difficult to get away from those assumptions. let's go to casablanca, morocco. what do you want to ask ellenjohnson sirleaf and mary robinson? thank you, zeinab. both madam presidents, what an honour to be with you in the session today. thank you for the opportunity, bbc global questions.

my question today is about women in leadership positions. many of us in this position often hear that we are too articulate or too direct or even too confident. why do people make these kind of statements, and do you think that this can lead to self—limiting ambitions for women and many other girls who are growing to be these leaders? thank you. mary robinson, what is your answer to dana? thank you, dana. it is true that women in leadership are oftenjudged differently than men. the traits that are valued in men, like decisiveness, assertiveness, bold action, can often be seen as shrill, bossy — all the negative terms when a woman is doing exactly the same thing. and that is a cultural

trait itself. i actually think the best way to counter it is to ignore it. i remember when i was elected president of ireland in 1990, i was the first woman president. i was absolutely determined to do it confidently, feeling that actually, i would do a betterjob precisely because i was a woman. i didn't want to be seen as being like the men, i wanted to do it differently and use all my skills and leadership qualities as a woman to do the job and i think that is the way to counter it. ellenjohnson sirleaf, i mean, societal expectations of women they shouldn't fight in combat or go into space and not be too confident, as dana was saying. what do you think about this? if these values — articulate, direct — were the ones that are attributed to women, that would be great. we would claim it.

most times, the values that are attributed are the ones that have a negative overtone. too many times, when women are assertive, it's said that they are aggressive even though men would be called assertive. so i don't think we have a problem with these particular attributes, and women are just prepared to stand up and accept those. they have no problem with being called articulate. we would like to see that. and so, what we need to do is to make sure that women continue to speak out, women continue to have their voice, women continue to be regarded as the ones that are going to claim the leadership that they rightfully deserve. alright, dana.

what do you want to say to what our two madam presidents have said? thank you very much. this is reassuring. girl in the south ofjordan, fighting these stereotypes and trying to break them and go beyond. and i'm so happy there are other leaders encouraging and inspiring girls in these emerging markets and around the world to really break these barriers and stereotypes. thank you very much. alright, let's go to sydney, australia, to our next question. our next question is from rachel wong, and i shoudl say, you are the ceo of the think tank women's forum australia. fire away. it really is a privilege to discuss these issues with such influential women.

my question today is, when are we going to wake up to the insidous end to objectification of women in culture, with shaped misogynistic attitudes in pornography among other things. how can we address it? this is a huge problem, isn't it? the sectoral objectification of women deeply embedded in particularly popular culture. it really is. 0bjectification of women is a problem that's got to be resisted in the strongest of ways. representation of people is very critical to how we shape the attitudes of women in society. and let me say, the media is a major concern in this regard. the media can be positive, in being able to uplift the voices of women, but the media can also be very negative. and we've seen so many

cases in recent times where women who have achieved leadership roles are told — when conveying their leadership roles, are being put in a negative sense, which has happened in the case of the director of the world trade organization, in which she was accorded and elected to this poisition but in annoucing it, she was called names that were degrading. you're talking about ngozi 0konjo—iweala, what are you referring to there? she was being attacked because she was the first woman to be elected as director general of the world trade organization and they did not want to give her the credit

for her talent and her managerial expertise. theyjust wanted to put her as — she was merely a grandmother. in other words, she should not be there. and i think they need to apologise for that statement. 0k, alright, that is a disparaging statement but let's move onto the sexual of women and how they are shown with easy access to porn and advertising and pop videos and all the rest of it. we need consumer revolt against that kind of objectification, that misuse of the image of women to sell products in a very sexy way and so on, and also the problems of social media, that ellen was talking about. but we need to be careful that we do not intrude on freedom of expression

and have a censorship that can be counter— productive, you know, that can actually cause another kind of reaction. i mean, it goes right across the board. women, when elected to high office, do suffer you know, complaints about how they dress, how they speak, how they work, how they smile. it's a much tougher world for women in public positions and we know that, and part of it is the fact that we allow an objectification and it's how we really try to counter that by having a society that values gender equality and that will not tolerate, as consumers, this objectification. it will take time. all right, rachel, do you have any ideas yourself about how governments can address this problem, because it is a question you posed? yes, i couldn't agree more that we need to ensure

equality across the board for women with men, but i really don't think we can do that unless we seriously address the issue of pornography. to recognise that porn is normalising violence against women and that is conditioning men, many from when they are just young boys, to view girls as sexual objects to be used and abused and this and exploitation that takes place on the porn industry itself. i think it's time the government acknowledged the inherently obstructive nature of porn and address it in the correct way. to stanford, california. to audrey, your question, please? thank you so much for having me. - madam presidents, i'd be - interested to know what steps men can take to achieve gender equality. - mary robinson. it is really important that we engage men because gender equality matters for both women

and men. — and there efforts like adopting a he for she approach, to be champions of gender equality. actually, ellen has been seeking to bring male presidents in africa together on this issue, so i will pass to her in a moment, but i do think it is really important to have men take on the child—rearing, the home—making, the care of elderly, so that the burdens and responsibilities at home are shared because until we do that, we will not see a full equality. how achievable is that? ellenjohnson sirleaf, how achievable is it in africa to get the men to agree to be home—makers and take 50—50 share in the child rearing?

0h, we're a long way off from that. we have to ask the question, when will men recognise the value of women, to know the contribution that women can make to society? they're equally smart, knowledgeable, they are courageous. what does it take for them to recognise those values that reside in there? their wives, their daughters? what does it take? what does that take, ellenjohnson sirleaf? you're posing the question, we're all agog, we want to know. we need the policies, no doubt. we need constitutional change, if that is required,

but we haven't able to change the attitudes. for people to see women be young, that says they ought to be in the home. audrey, what do you think about what you've just heard? these are excellent responses and just brings me back to the thought that someone running an non—profit to get more than in the industry and talking about the 50, men will not just disappear from the conversation, they need to be active allies and that means really calling out microaggressions, telling people when it's not ok to do or say certain things and these responses make me optimistic about being a woman in the industry. we like optimism also. not all doom and gloom. it's an honour to be here. thank you so much.

my question is, what do you think the biggest hurdle to achieving gender equality and women's economic empowerment across the globe? biggest hurdle? what's the big obstacle? attitudes. attitudes, attitudes. male domination. the world default for male power is what keeps women behind. it's still what keeps women behind. how do we change the attitude? that's what we need to address. lots of progress in there, as we mentioned, men who have now been liberated from these old attitudes, and we need to expand their numbers. attitude, attitude, attitude.

yes, i agree with ellen, and i think what we really need is to have a sense that in the modern world, we all benefit from more equality, therefore, for men and women, this is the goal and i think this is something that young people understand more. young girls are leading as climate activists. they are showing by the passion and how articulate they are that they will change the world, if i can put it that way, and i do think that a big hurdle is the fact that there's a lack of resources for what women want to achieve. very little trickles down to women at local level in their communities to make them resilient to climate, for example. a very small amount. and it's all the way — not only is power on the side of men, so are resources. thank you. now to saudi arabia for our last question.

thank you for having me. i am 17 years old, i'm part of the un generation of equality for youth group and i am also a un delegate for girls learn international. i also run my own non—profit, and my question is, how can we ensure that women have equal representation in power in places of decision—making and leadership. thank you. right, all that and you're only 17 here. my goodness me. coming to you. ellen, how do we ensure equal representation and power in decision—making and leadership? i know in i know in 2016 i know in 2016 liberia i know in 2016 liberia introduced a new law reserve in parliamentary seats for women, young people and people with disabilities. 0ur quota is one of the ways forward?

——are quotas one of the ways forward? we need more than that, we need an enabling environment. for that, go back changing attitudes. and women cannot be the only ones that fight to change these attitudes. men have to weigh in. we're trying to write a letter to all the male presidents and male leaders and ask them to be willing to give an open commitment to gender equality. how will they respond? we do not know, but i think we ought to ask them to do it. thank you. what is your answer, mary robinson? i agree but women have to be smart. take, for example, the africa euro foundation that you mentioned at the beginning.

you mentioned we are co—chairs of a women as leaders network, and that did not exist. we invented it because the africa europe foundation was going to be chaired by two men, we were invited to be honorary presidents, which is not very significant leaders network, and we already find the network is giving a gender lens to the whole of the africa europe foundation, all its strategy committees — all of what it's doing. and what it is a great power in women led networks at all levels, at local level, goals, networking. i'm sure each of the questioners as part of a network. there's a lot of trust in women leader networks because we know that if we are not there for our ego but we are there to change things, they are to problem

solve, they are to collaborate. can i ask you both very ugly because your older states women and you've both been in positions of leadership, but frankly the progress hasn't been great, how is it? in both your countries, the number of women parliamentarians is only around 0, i 107 one in ten women leaders globally is female, so why is it even when have women such as yourself positions of leadership that the numbers just don't stack up on the progress isn't as great as we would like it to be? i was actually going to pick up on the importance of quotas. i think they do help to accelerate the equality and i fully agree with them, i've seen it work in so many countries. why is scandinavia seen as being very good on women playing a 50—50 role in parliaments and cabinets? because they began with quotas. and i think we can all learn, we have quotas in ireland which are not working as well as they should, but i do agree and i think

it is very, very important that we work at this during this gender equality year. very quickly, ellen, progress has been very slow here, you are on the world stage for many decades but we still only have four countries in the world with more than 50% of their cabinet members are women. the progress on women leadership is real and that may have led to a pushback — that we were moving too far, too fast. but i think we need tojust continue and the timing is now. if there's any time where inequities have been exposed, it is in this covid—19 year. and now is the time to push even harder and i believe the progress women have made can now be discussed.

and mary mentioned the quota system, some countries have resisted the basis of competition and this would not would not allow competition. but we agree with that might disagree with that because women are ready to compete fully for any leadership position or any position in society. thank you. saudi arabia, a country which in many people's hasn't got the bestrecord, let's put it that way, on women's rights. i these past few years, saudi has seen a slow but steady and promising progress in terms of women's rights, in recent years, we were given the right to drive in 2018, the patriarchal system is dissolving although it does still exist in some circumstances unfortunately and i think international pressure has been working release activist from jail and progressing women's rights. i'm an optimistic person and i do believe in the country's ability to make a lot of gender equality progress in the future.

well, thank you and very good to end this programme with a very articulate 17—year—old there. thank you very much indeed to my two panellists. and thank you to my questioners who joined us from all over the world and to you wherever you are watching this programme. that's all from this edition of global questions. sexism and violence against women and a patriarchal world. remember, we are the programme bringing you the trend lines behind the headlines and if you want to be part of our next programme, submit a question on the website. for now, from me, zainab badawi, goodbye. thank you very much indeed. hello, there. easter sunday's highest

temperature was in worcestershire where it got very close to 18 celsius. but at the other end of the uk, the weather was changing, and it was changing drastically. that was shetland with some snow showers and some cold air. and that cold air is now moving southwards. behind this cold front, a much, much chillierfeel to the weather for easter monday. the start of the new week bringing much colder days and some frosty nights. snow showers quite widely, but especially across northern scotland, where there will be blizzard conditions with some really strong winds. so as we start monday morning, then, the remnants of our cold front bringing some patchy rain into the south. behind that, sunny spells, yes, but plenty of showers, especially for coastal areas. the showers falling as a mixture of hail and snow scotland, where we'll see the snow really piling up over the highest ground. and there will be blizzard conditions here, as i said,

with wind gusts of 50—60, maybe 70 mph. and even if you see sunshine through monday afternoon, 4—9 degrees the maximum temperature. factor in the strength of that northerly wind, this is what it's going to feel like. it will feel subzero for many, feeling like “4 there in aberdeen. now, as we head through monday night into the early hours of tuesday, you can see the snow showers continuing, particularly for eastern and western coasts, some for northern ireland and plenty more for northern scotland. and it is going to be widely a cold and frosty night, and there could be some icy stretches around as well first thing on tuesday morning. and another cold and wintry day to come on tuesday with some spells of sunshine. showers especially around the coasts, but actually, greater chance of seeing some showers inland, and again, those showers are likely to be wintry. and it's another cold day, still windy too, 2—9 degrees at best. a subtle change as we head towards the middle part of the week, and it comes courtesy of this little frontal system here. it is a warm front

running in from the west. as the name suggests, the air behind it will be warmer or perhaps just a little bit less cold. temperatures will slowly nudge upwards. that front will bring a little bit of rain for some, but not quite all of us. so, through the middle of the week, some slightly in northern areas, it will turn cold once again.

welcome to bbc news, i'm lewis vaughanjones. our top stories: royal crisis injordan, former crown prince hamza accused of plotting to destabilise the country. new coronavirus restrictions in india's worst affected state, as the country records the world's highest number of daily infections. the florida reservoir leaking toxic waste—water, and the battle to prevent an environmental disaster. and tears ofjoy, the swimmer who's qualified for the tokyo 0lympics after being diagnosed with leukemia.