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Homeira Qaderi lived for reading and writing. In the mid-1990s, when she was 13 years old, the Taliban banned girls from going to school in Afghanistan, so she set up a secret classroom in her kitchen. She also taught young refugee children in a tent, risking death if she was caught, and sought out a teacher who could secretly instruct her in the art of writing stories. She later went to university in Iran and became a successful writer, academic and women's rights advocate. Homeira has written a memoir as a ‘mother’s letter to her son’, in which she tries to explain to him what growing up as a girl in Afghanistan was like, and the sacrifices she made along the way. She tells Jo Fidgen just how much she has had to battle to pursue her dream.

The Russian wilderness is home to the world's largest owl - the Blakiston's Fish Owl. For months at a stretch, an American conservationist called Jon Slaght journeys through the forests of Eastern Russia following these rather elusive birds. It all began for him more than 20 years ago, when he was a young volunteer in the Peace Corps and had a magical chance encounter. This interview was first broadcast in 2016.

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Picture: Homeira Qaderi
Credit: Tim Schoon