yes celebrate women's achievements but in 2020 millions of girls and women around the world continue to fight against the odds that deprived of an education and jobs condemned to a life of poverty and violence their voices silenced and afghanistan women are rising up to protect their hard won rights now understood it by the return of the taliban in the u.s. the world's most powerful democracy dreams of the 1st female president dashed again after another strong woman candidate bites the dust women in power and powerless women will the world ever know gender parity and what will it take a male iraq this is the day. of the month during the taliban period i stayed at home and unfortunately couldn't go to school like thousands of other girls suffer from within 2 or 3 months of the

future of afghanistan will be in the hands of the taliban's on that the taliban have suppressed women for years to come out of our youth will not be running for president in 2020 but i guarantee i will stay in the fight and really stand out i love the list with laura and i wanted her to be our 1st woman president. also coming up just how bad is a corona virus pandemic well as people around the world search for face masks and hand sanitizer and avoid large crowds we'll talk to a medical his story about how this virus compares to past epidemics. i heard of international women's day we take stock of a long long women's rights struggle the one in afghanistan they were may's one of

the worst places in the world to be a woman on the status of women in afghan society is the barometer by which afghan society is measured by afghans themselves and the international community or just last week the us signed a landmark deal with the taliban to end 19 years of war but questions linger and are raised about whether peace is possible between the taleban and the rest of afghan society and many women in the country like filmmaker warrior sadat are fearful that a return to power of the taliban jeopardizes the heart thought games they made. roy aside that with her team the filmmaker is considered one of the best in afghanistan she's busy planning a new project with her production company lawyer film. office is already full of international awards. that is worried by the political

changes happening in her country how will the peace treaty agreed with the taliban affect her and of the women. to seek a muslim i get honest. concerned when i remember how women in our country was simply forgotten during the taliban's 5 year grew up to 911 how to we cut it off the international community views afghanistan as an open and shut case and abandons us again that would undoubtedly be grave consequences. for years sundance has documented the empowerment of afghan women in films like a letter to the president. of the drama follows soraya a government official who rescues a young girl from being stoned by villagers. actions incite the fury of local warlords and her husband. soraya is imprisoned and jude to be

executed only a letter to afghanistan's president can save her. on a television show. where they get in the way and that is the film was afghanistan's and true for the best foreign language film oscar in 2017. but i tend to films when i had a lot of things to say for my sake we were emerging from a very oppressive period so i strongly believe in cinema i think it's one of the most important art forms for transforming society. royer so that's what has always been risky in parts of her country film and cinema going are still taboo in $27.00 saying she was awarded the international woman of courage award she's not the only woman afraid of a potential taliban resurgence. within 2 or 3 months the future of afghanistan will

be in the hands of the taliban the taliban have suppressed women for years how will they give women rights when they believe women should stay at home and shouldn't even be allowed to go out you. have to be the bottom of the another. so yes we might not win this more suicide attacks or explosions in afghanistan but instead afghan women like me could lose their freedom. to get a lawyer so that fears the return of fundamentalism but she's not giving up she says she'll continue making films and hopes to remain a mouthpiece for half fellow afghans both women and men. from our 1st guest is an afghan american it women's right. it's activist and a board member of the women for of god women a group that helps to mystic abuse victims and afghanistan and to discuss this crucial moment for women in afghanistan i'd like to welcome now masood assault on

who is joining us from new york a very good day how would you describe the state of women's rights in afghanistan today. lives just one of the. things you're badly since 2001 when the u.s. and the international community started to. create a lot of development projects for afghanistan and. were efforts there so women's indicators on return were tele. education the fact that girls were not allowed to go to school that they have now they are and life expectancy and access to health clinics have all improved in fact afghanistan has been moving forward in a lot of indicators however asking women have have been starting from

a very low point and so and afghanistan is a very difficult country it has a lot of property the poverty rate has gone from 36 percent in 2002 to 55 percent now and those include women so why women's progress has been made in the past 1819 years great strides have been the afghanistan is still one of the worst places in the world to be a woman it ranks last or next to last on various indicators where women progress including the georgetown women peace and security educator for example. and this is why i am some people will want to know because today if i understand correctly you advocate for engaging with the taleban why. well the taliban are in afghanistan in one form or another and. the war has been going on. or any 1000 years and last year in

200-1960 dropped more bombs in afghanistan had. in years to be keeping records so it seems that the efforts in terms of the kinetic warcraft routes are not getting to a better state in terms of the. violence the conflict and so what i see is that the only way they can get out of this not militarily is by having the parties talk to each other and part of those talks need to involve afghan women and i know they will. now you were so determined to put women's issues on the agenda that you went and spoke to talabani representatives during one of the doha meetings that took place how did that meeting come about and what did they tell you. well in all of these various lists that are often being the. size of the talks.

what's often left out is that of course is civil society and in it and so one of the things we wanted to do was to encourage their participation but also help them in the process of engagement since we've been doing this work for a month so i went to april of 2008 to travel to doha. along with another point number of women for afghan women to try and understand what was going on with the track and dialogue and so that we could support the other participants at the other women but the chance of falling apart and there was an opportunity because some other afghans had also right to do no harm with plans to take part so we were there and had the opportunity to meet the taliban in a private 6 hour meeting where we expressed our concerns of course we listened to

them which i don't think. most people are ready to do and what to do considering their history but we thought it would be good to start talking about the problems that afghan women means that are common to. across the country it doesn't matter what faction you're from or what side of the war i'm a suit i'm going to canton right there and i'm really sorry for interrupting they have not been receptive to what women want and what women need i mean they're not allies so i'm just warning like when you're sitting in that room face to face with these men who have made girls' lives impossible and turned women's lives in public impossible i mean what's that like i mean have they changed that radically. i should tell you is that these are not normal so we don't speak for all afghans but there will be a form of that very clear. when

when i was faced with that i found that they were respect well. they liked the work of the herbs. and herbs for example and they were really trying hard to determine or to demonstrate i'm sorry that they could engage in interactions with women because that was the 1st question people hired is what they say and what would they do so the point is that there needs to be more engagement not less gauge bit more afghan women need to be saying what it is they want not just their fears but what it is they expect and where they want their lives to improve not just to the taliban but to all of the players in the political environment and the war need to hear more from women it's a masuda sultan is an afghan american women's rights activist and a board member of the women for of god women a group that helps domestic abuse victims in afghanistan all the best to you and continued success to the women of afghanistan thank you germany oh there's for the

. past all right next to making history in the white house 2020 was supposed to be the year of the woman after president tom took office in the u.s. a record breaking number of women were elected into the house of representatives in the 2018 midterm elections but just a year later an unprecedented number of female presidential hopefuls make their case to democratic voters that they have what it takes to get to the white house now all but one have dropped out of the race elizabeth warren was the latest to end her presidential bid after a disappointing super tuesday finish gender in this race and you know. that is the trap question for every woman. if you say you know there was sexism in this race everyone says weiner and if you say no there was no sexism

about a bazillion women think planet you live on i think she would have made the best president by far. and i think that she's run an awesome campaign and i hope that she does again we lost a great plan or we will it was some that's are going to rise to someone that would listen some of the could can unite all of the people. she's smart she cares she's from the hot and i wanted her to be our 1st woman president disappoint to supporters there i'm now joined by genius and back associate director of the center for american women in politics at rutgers university in the state of new jersey a very good day was senator elizabeth warren the victim of sexism in politics. yeah i think she definitely was you know it's a tough it's tough to be a woman on the campaign trail and you know i think she said it perfectly when she said you know when you raise it you're considered

a minor and if you if you don't call it out every every woman you know agrees why why are you not acknowledging sexism it's a near universal experience that we've talked to hundreds of candidates around the country over at you know decades and this experience facing bias on the campaign trail and you know being expected to be twice as good as the men who are running but take it happens seriously it's a pretty universal experience so i definitely think she was a victim of sexism to some degree if not the only thing that. you know that hurt her chances here but it's it was definitely a major factor and she was constantly up against this electability question right now orders in the united states they're very concerned about the state of the country and a lot of them are you know wanting to get a new administration in next year so they i think part of the reaction that we saw from voters on super tuesday is you know who is quote unquote the most electable

candidate and that you know in many minds the sort of traditional candidate the older white male candidates really rise to the top because that senior who people are used to and you know just sad we've never elected president and they were willing to take a chance right now president of trump has called another formidable candidate who was almost president hillary clinton the only woman to come close to becoming the president a nasty woman let's take a listen to what the president had to say about senator elizabeth warren i think lack of talent which improves. your tremendous lack of talent she was a good debater. and she destroyed like bloomberg very quickly like it was nothing that was easy for people don't like her. so a very mean person and people don't like it or people don't want to like a person like me that's not me. now i don't think it's a stretch to say that

a person from likes insults his political opponents both male and female what do you make of his attacks on. clinton and warren. it's pretty much par for the course when hammy now. has a long history of making derogatory remarks towards women and you know being insulting quite frankly and so it's not surprising i mean this is what we've come to expect of him and. there's not much more to say about it let's move on that often is the u.s. ready is the u.s. ready for a woman president and if not what will it take. i mean i certainly think voters are actually ready for it although you know obviously what we saw this week is perhaps not this year. i do think they are you know we're still up against a lot of bias and you know it's unconscious in many cases but you know they're just

they're they're reluctant to take the chance there's a culture shift that i think we're in the middle of i think we're getting a lot closer than we have been in the past i think this election is more about donald trump than it is about you know any one woman and getting the presidency it seems to the sole focus this year for a lot of voters seems to be on you know changing the administration so it's hard to say what will happen but i will say it with an incredible disappointment to many many especially tickler early women that i've talked to last couple of days that there isn't even the possibility of a woman president in 202020 so. i think that disappointment is going to linger and i think it's going to shape things that make her come right there's 2024 to look forward to jean sendak's associate professor sosia director of the center for american women politics happy international women's day to you.

you know. now to another country where women's progress was a long time coming south korea and that nation now has its 1st main female news anchor in a country with the world's 12 largest economy it's taken 6 decades for women to be promoted to the main news anchor's world it's a landmark development in a traditional and conservative society and it's making headline news meet veteran journalist so you're. stepping into the spotlight and pushing through the glass ceiling besides breaking news journalist lisa g. only is also breaking boundaries becoming south korea's 1st ever female my news anchor though the country is transformed itself into a modern economic powerhouse culturally it's still often a man's world. so you don't want to go there or you know

traditionally the main news anchor would be an older experienced man and beside him there would be a young female announcer who is pretty like a flower. and starts hours to go. lee is no newcomer to the business the award winning reporter has been with public broadcasting k.b.'s since 2003 but even she thought this top job would be out of reach. without realising i myself was thinking it would be impossible for that to be a female main anchor at any time before i retired. luckily for her she was wrong now she hopes her trailblazing will make it easier for the women who follow their record. time quite. soon i hope people will no longer be interested in whether the anchor is a woman or a man. ted i'll try to stop defining myself as a female journalist i'm

a journalist and a news anchor. and according. to a story she hopes that will soon stop being news where they. are. now to the latest on the global corona virus outbreak on friday the number of confirmed infections worldwide surpassed the 100000 mark while also today that again city became one of the latest countries to report a case of the current a virus well as people around the world seek to avoid large crowds many public spaces that are normally packed with visitors like st peter's square right here behind me they're practically empty the hour break is taking a huge toll on the travel industry and other sectors in the world health organization says hopes that the virus will simply go away when the weather gets warmer are misplaced we do not know yet what the activity or the behavior of this

why it was will be in different climatic conditions we have to assume that the virus will continue to have the capacity to spread it's a false hope to say yes it will just disappear in the summertime like it was about as we hope it goes i would die would be a godsend but we can to make that a solution and there is no evidence right now to suggest that that will happen so we need to fight the virus know not live in hope that the virus may disappear a little i'm happy now to welcome my next guest alexander white from johns hopkins university yes baltimore maryland as a. medical historian you sir are uniquely placed to put this outbreak that's gripping the world at the moment into a larger deeper context to better help us understand what we're going through right now has anything similar to the cove 8900 taken place in history well i mean i

think in terms of the scale of responses that we've seen especially in china you know the world's never seen a quarantine of that scale and that's something to take into account but in terms of epidemic epidemics i think you know the the 898-881-0010 extension 00 flu really you know looks very similar in one of ways although you know what's important to remember is the mortality rate for that flu well being similar to deaths occurred amongst out here younger populations and or exclusively months the elderly but you see that now this outbreak transcends borders but the reaction has been to close the border seal ourselves off * do you have historical examples of that working. working out it's complicated order closures are often response to epidemics and often these responses are over aggressive as in the case of the west african of all that the damage in some cases border closures can have some success

a limiting epidemic spread but only when you know i think the justification for those closures are linked to rio and verifiable health thing and the decision to close the borders or only after all other avenues surgeons increase screening and monitoring and then thirdly exhausted. you know happen to an epidemic of always considered a very serious play in surat india in 1904 was actually very small but had very drastic economic effects and greatly reducing the g.d.p. of india as a result of border clearance to indian goods and travel in the middle east in asia and in the mediterranean so it's it's a double edged sword it's a double edged sword and i want to ask you as well that the corona virus outbreak that we're going through right now change the world as we know it when you compare it to similar outbreaks in the past i mean i think we're seeing with the levels in a phobia and the financial crises that you know are emerging as a response to corona virus it could have massive facts on the u.s.

presidential election. you know global economic recovery would not be effects of this epidemic are going to linger even well beyond the biomedical effects pass away give us some good news is that all bad news what can we learn from past outbreaks. i mean i think i think that. epidemics amplify animosity in people especially against those who are most marginalized in society but they should also be a powerful force to recognizing our shared connections and responsibilities to each other if you feel sick stay home from work and maybe work remotely and wash your hands up and not just for yourself but for others around you and maybe if we can recognize that our own personal health relies on the compassion and care of others and others rely on us to keep them healthy we can find common ground in all sorts of areas of social life so i think you know this is a moment to sit back and think about our shared connections and human rights oh right right a great way to and alexander white from johns hopkins university sir thank you for

your time thanks so much and. now the day is almost done now that the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either added avenues or you can follow me at leyla don't forget to use our half sank their day out remember whatever happens between now and tomorrow is another day. or. wrong. or or.

thank you. our clothes our lifestyle choices and the fashion statement but they are way smarter and the environment eco. design is more of blazing new paths with garments made from plastic and paper and lays down next national tomorrow stylish. and eco friendly now for. next year.

boy oh boy oh boy. he's quite as simple as it seems. to understand the world better we need to take a closer look at the. experience knowledge to morrow today. is the human race to destroy itself. we are moving the basic elements of our existence. we're using too much water and moving. water.

we may think go about our supplies one last forever. but. when the rains stop. starts march 20th on g.w. you. know. the. when shopping for clothes it's con sometimes be hard to decide they are often so many choices but the process for fabric production to a finished piece of clothing come have a terrible impact on the environment it is time for us to have a rethink on to make the textile business more sustainable walk into these.