signals. slow blues no love. for love over. gaza. kissing the. i can't sleep. couldn't sleep. school. this is d.w. news africa coming up on the program women in conflict zones we visit rebel territory in the democratic republic of congo where one woman is fighting driven by a desire for justice. since they killed my father he was killed everyone in my family that's the only reason i became a fighter. and we meet all but trying to get syria leonean children to appreciate

their culture as they learn to read. hello i'm told me glad you could join us we begin in the democratic republic of congo where the east of the country has suffered from years of fighting the region is ruled by a complex web of armed groups with different interests and motivations it's difficult for outsiders to get into parts of the area but. gained rare access to rebel held territory where she met one woman who's bearing the wounds of conflict but with a little glimpse of hope from now on it's what they called no man's land because not the government and also no specific rebel group controls this area that makes an ass of quite dangerous the rebel i mean this is where no man's land begins and this is where also how the fighting happens on

a regular basis. we're on foot the beauty of the landscape cannot distract from the constant fear of kidnap or being caught up in fighting. as soon as we get close the rebel militia sends an escort to take us to their base. one of them is mummify either she joined the militia almost 20 years ago after another group attacked her that the man killed. her parents with machetes 6 of them raped her she was just 15 she'd already been married the same group that killed her husband. i felt defeated my life had defeated me i saw what they had done to me and how they killed my family i couldn't continue my life like it had been i mean really so i decided to become a fighter and drive them out of what was it. given the chance she'd

shoot them on the spot she says when a former teacher began recruiting people to take revenge she joined him many in her group survived similar trust that is it's a militia of traumatized damaged young people. they killed my father they killed everyone in my family that's the only reason i became a fighter. for terry venge and survival they control around 20 villages in the area security for food in a deal they say is consensual that we saw our local people running in fear from them the idea of consent is complicated for everyone. it's only when we're alone that number for either says this. i hear that other people run away from the group but i think how can i run i have no one to help me i have no land i have no one who could help me build a life. she would like to trade her gun for the life she had before

as a farmer english is the most that they are i would have had a good life with my husband one like other people have but that was taken away from me so i did not but. now she pours what hope she has in her children that they will have choices one day. you know what if god blesses me i could at least give them an education if they're blessed at least that i can never get another job so i cannot help them by myself. so who is helping women who are survivors of conflict let's not speak too because. she is the nigeria director of the organization women for women international action joins us now from the city of justice in my jury of the color it's good to

have you on the program you're going to as asian works with women around the world but in my jury here how are these women affected by in security do you have any examples. oh yes i do have a lot of example her example of we remember go to bed and a night and then we'd go out we. situations beyond their control over night to say everything and when i say here everything and it was their homes that it was locked once they were going to in some cases the area. i have thought we may have to run away from the our original homes are because displaced women in all of us it is so 800 towns but so right time. and yet we did trauma. such experiences so we have a model we men in that situation and concrete and their own force related i think

not and now it's been done and for women international coming to. us. from your experience because when you look at the issues of insecurity in nigeria you have for example boko rahman and the kidnappings but you also have intercommunal conflict and in those cases how can women be leaders in conflict resolution. oh well in part in that particular community where we walk the kind of a 12 month food i'm stronger than the others on the witness on the nation's program we had we made was that we saw that program become changes and 3. cases i can call in sick show using that for me to be actually typing out programs piece along really been so good at the edges and if i was in their book honestly i don't

fuss and they all piled into so how about this question i was beyond this i was as good as i was to look at all calling it the as a whole and see how and why some voters will really show a piece in their community a game because it focuses some of those people have to be there for media for well over 5 decades in some cases like this by people ask for anything to say it's as. if the results asked example the women because the conversation is going hard and they have to and they enjoy the season such. so yes i go right and very briefly how does everyday life in these communities you work with stop women from achieving their potential what are these things they have to overcome. well our 1st and foremost i would say here peace on with god is to go. out for.

the. know to take the responsibility of finally. understand why god. activity or it's killed actually is to use. as being made. for. i think it's very proper before. seeing and not only of problem is. all right we have to leave it there for now because when he she and you're a director of women for women international thank you thank you very much and still on in palm and we turn now to a woman hoping to inspire the next generation vicki ramon has used her platforms as a media intrapreneur an activist to raise awareness on challenges affecting women

and girls and now she wants to go further with a new book series for children vicki removal is awaken on to come in story books for children in serially on the upper part of a series that she hopes will help children celebrity african culture. to reach these remote published defense in this series i got my laughs. with these and last traditions she tells the story of a serial union father who teaches his daughter about local games and food. this book is the 1st officer trained in the post-war serial yawn she wants kids like his son to relate to local characters in story books. so when i wrote the book i was thinking specifically about doing an early reader

book i would teach you know that sounds a vowel sound to children like my son. and i thought yes i really want to center it on a cereal union family on a cereal leonean girl that whether you're selling in child at home or in the diaspora when you pick this up the names of the characters you will see yourself in them. this local printing press has been busy producing more copies of the book due today huge demand among parents and brought. has already sort of core pieces to half story books that african children to learn how to read but at the same time identify with african characters and illustrations excite some pairings. as someone who's been teaching her child how to read since a very young age this is perfect to add to the collection and i think it's also perfect for i would say the modern parents bringing up children. learn about

their culture and that they're happy about their culture and that enthused about their culture. it's not all about story books she's also passionate about the world countries go. serially only young girls today given the state of education given the state of health care given the lack of social protection with regard to gender based violence things like. female genital mutilation and child rape which is really. just scaring the high and serially and given all these things i know that if they continue like this these girls will not be like me and i don't mean be like me is like be like vicky but have the same amount of opportunities so they can also believe that they can and they can bear to . see the government has declared free in violence against girls.

see. her books can contribute to positive change in the country in the long run she dreams of an even greater reach promoting values while teaching. that's it for now we leave you with the hash tag message to my sister campaign a project from women for women international inviting you to send a message of hope friendship and sisterhood to a woman survival of war on this international women's day here's some of the received we'll see you next time i find out.

we've got some tips for your bucket list. corner. for food. and some great cultural memorials to boot. trouble free. to use crime fighters are back

africa's most successful radio drama series continues this season the stories focus on hate speech cholera prevention sustainable charcoal production all of the sos are available online and of course you can share and discuss on the team. africa's facebook page and other social media platforms. crime fighters tune in now. and a very warm welcome to this special edition of arts and culture special because we are concentrating on one subject indeed one man none other than leonardo da vinci who painted the most famous picture in the world the mona lisa this year is the 500th anniversary of his death he's still considered the greatest painter of all

time and yet perhaps only around 15 or so paintings of his have survived to this day this is extraordinary when you think of the influence he has had on the artistic world since that this important anniversary is being marked in many different ways throughout the world. leonardo di said pietro da vinci borne an illegitimate child on april 15th 1452 in italy the tuscan polymath was a man ahead of his time and his discoveries in art and science changed the course of history and 500 years on the world is celebrating. digital onto a with the giants of the renaissance. was always a visionary. he and disappeared to things that were only invented years after his

death. i believe that if you were alive today he would have developed many of his inventions using digital techniques. and maybe he would have projected a new holographic flying machine into this set about it like here at the fabric of dell of a poor museum in milan leonardo da vinci 3 d. even lets visitors meet the man himself the immersive exhibit links the past with the present and gives a view is the opportunity to experience many of davinci creations all under one roof. the exhibition at the queen's gallery in london draws together the threads of the renascence man's feverish curiosity these drawings gave davinci room to explore the universal laws he believed underpinned all of creation. the drawings show that leonardo was a serious practitioner of sculpture architecture engineering. science is to many

different feels he saw himself as a fully rounded figure drawing is the activity that pulls it all together. the collection has been together since the artist's death and provides an insight into the masters in workings. weaving davinci this tapestry woven purely of silk with gold and silver thread is inspired by davinci the last supper to mark the anniversary the vatican museum hosted a study day to coincide with the conclusion of a year and a half of restoration work on the 500 year old cloth between the it's probably one of the earliest interpretations of the great last supper of leonardo in milan time and that's i mean. one of the earliest but it certainly wasn't the last the last supper is the most reproduced painting of all time. clowery

intervention italian artist daddio graham bought and took 8 hours ploughing lines and curves to complete the portrait the work measured 27 square kilometers but it didn't last long it was dug under a few days later. and are joined by the author of that revolt melissa holroyd 500 years after 500 years waters davinci most remember. he's most remembered as an artist and also as an inventor as a scientist his work in anatomy was hundreds of years ahead of its time also what he has told us in terms of flights yeah that was only really explored at the start of the last century he also asked very very important questions he asked why is the sky blue how does the heart work how did the valves in the heart work what is a sneeze what is

a your own why do we shiver when we're cold this is really no stopping the road also because he was such an insatiable polymath he also told us a lot about the integration of these different disciplines and to think that this was all 500 years ago that ok but here we are 500 years ahead and there has been. discussion that he was such a genius that he maybe had a t.h.d. this attention deficit hyperactivity disorder what you think. i think he is for sure he frustrated a lot of people who commissioned him to do work he sometimes he took years to finish things sometimes he never finished things he even got you know got slack from the pope the pope got on his case he was employed for 3 years by the vatican and then after 3 years they said that's enough and the pope said of him alas this man will never do and never do anything for he begins by thinking of the end of the

work before the beginning so he was in that he was in the tour he has extensive planned starting and not finishing he was also left handed and there's also evidence to suggest that he was dyslexic and both of these things are associated with 80 h.d. ok but despite all this frustration from people things don't get finished he did get loads of commissions though didn't he because he was so good i mean he wasn't a rich man but he was constantly working and he was working on a huge of a of things from designing pageants to designing people's bathrooms as far as his inventions go some of that is disputed a fair amount of that is still disputed while his artistic work is well documented his some of his scientific stuff is not so well documented a german author mathias called he doubts whether he was responsible for all the inventions that are tributed to him and he also says that they didn't all work

there is a tank for example which functions by a crank and and echo says that the crank actually means that the wheels turn in the wrong direction ok so let's find out about this side more about this side of leonardo. as something that was brought to our attention in the 19th twenty's by a rather infamous. it was in the early 20th century that the image of leonardo as inventor which he himself never claimed to be 1st emerged driven by benito mussolini to support his fascist ideology the dictator recast davinci as a universal genius and a leading figure of italian creative strength was done and was really neat initiated an exhibition not just initiated he ordered it to be and it was done and for that exhibition models were created from the vinci sketches for the 1st time. models that simply ignored the errors in the original sketches the exhibition

travelled from milan to the us cemented japan where it was destroyed in an air raid . amazingly the exhibition is gone mostly need is gone is gone leonardo culture the cult of leonardo da has remained this if enough leonardo is complete and that mythology continues to this day ringback. now melissa we don't know how many paintings as i said 15 or so you think it could be 20 there's lots of discussion about that but he did have these books notebooks 7000 pages of drawings and inventions and all that stuff and he's not really still known as a painter yeah and still there is some doubt about some of those his famous paintings so bottle maundy has had a long history and for a long time it was lost and then it was found again and some experts doubt whether

it's a real division they sought the position of the of the city and they also cite the lack of landscape in the background some say it's probably from the division she workshop and the davinci might have had his hand in it he might have said he might have painted the hair or something but a real davinci no it's still sold at a whopping 4. $450000000.00 at auction made in the i mean you name davinci just adds notes to it so the price of anything doesn't yeah it sure does and some experts say that that is partly because of the timing with davinci and things being able to be copied at the time that sort of has also contributed to how well we know him and his fine ok now let's have a look than at his most famous work of course we're talking about the priceless one of mona lisa. léonard davinci

spent more than 3 years painting portraits of the young woman art historians still don't know exactly who she was. her contours are soft and undefined vinci called this technique. which means in the manner of smoke. her eyes seem to fall of the viewer her smile is but the slightest suggestion. for hands rest patiently one on top of the other they're not as a picnic big division she's brilliant technique and his ability to contrast light and dark when the piece life you mona lisa sits upright when you get the sense she is about to smile when you put all the opposite that she's closing her mouth we don't know one senses that she might want to say something and communicate. the original is on show in paris france it's been on permanent display at the loo for a museum for more than 200 years. she's housed on the 1st floor in room 6 of the

den only protect and i think pain of bulletproof glass. i don't know if. the mona lisa is the one painting in the louvre that everyone wants to seeing when they had more sexual now every day between 203-0000 sometimes 50000 people would come to see her or at least try to see her. with 50000 visitors you have to be pretty patients try and get a close look up or ship the ship. her secret smile is timeless and mona lisa has become a modern icon of western art her face never goes out of style. and she's got to be the most famous woman in the world yet and people still don't know who she is exactly and why she was painted she has this mystical. secret aura and i think that's part of the reason why she's so compelling pete the people who use the

images image advertises and what have you i think they don't want to find out the secret behind the mona lisa it's also a great image because there's an element of promise there it's like she's coming full she's not sort of coming forward and she's not really going back there is something in between that we're looking at the great to tune. the environmentalist he she is out of as mona lisa i think they chose her because they probably think that his lot is a little bit like mine elise is small but i think greatest smile is much sweeter than mona lisas ok melissa holroyd it's been very interesting thank you very much for joining us and thank you for judy enjoy a special edition of arts and culture on a man who despite all the mess a non-answer questions about him is undoubtedly one of the greatest minds of graces and i hope you'll be able to see an event or exhibition about him big or small wherever you are in this special anniversary year we leave you with mona lisa once again but with twists to the original goodbye.

they are fleeing poverty only to end up in germany brothel women from eastern europe forced into sexual slavery. for them help is hard to come by but in the southern german city of mannheim there is leaving support from a committed women's rights activist exploiting the poor and closer. to their own d.w. . international women's day. or meeting women visible around the world their voices protest the 1st solo album because the sentiment is exacerbating inequality

. moonstruck easing women are fighting for itself determine life in demanding change. africa will get developed when a girl is given the grades and chances like the boys. women who fight. not just on international women. on indeed o.b.o. . vonna the 1st african woman to win the gluten that all wants to give people. a sensually african i'm very pro women maybe we need more voices that are more visible we're still growing. more freedom more some determination more right to. speak out. today on arts and culture on d w. how does

a virus spread. why do we panic and when will all of this. just through the topics covered and the weekly radio. if you like and the information on the crawl of virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at dot com look forward slash science. this is day w news and these are our top stories people around the world have been mocking international women's day with a special focus on the challenges women face from the coronavirus according to figure when the pandemic has subjected women to more unpaid work job losses and increased domestic violence. a brazilian supreme court judge has an

older criminal convictions against former president no reason asio just.