In the UAE, strict laws surround sex outside marriage. Prisons are filled with women who have fallen pregnant while unmarried, often due to abuse. Many are migrant domestic workers, particularly vulnerable and often trapped in the UAE by a law which forbids them from leaving the country without permission. This shocking report exposes the hidden persecution of vulnerable women sentenced under UAE law, their pregnancy used as evidence of their crime....

In a remote corner of southwestern China are the Mosuo, arguably the best remaining example of a matrilineal society in the world today. In this program, anthropologist Chou Wah-Shan-one of few outside scholars who have lived and worked extensively with the Mosuo-and Mosuo villagers offer insights into what life is like in the 91 communities where women rule and husbands don't exist. Commerce, belief systems, rituals and festivals, and the day-to-day...

This documentary portrays Australia's aborigines through the eyes of aboriginal women. Archival footage, excellent narration, and storytelling by the women themselves reveal the tribes' struggle for land rights, and the even greater struggle to retain traditional lifestyles and customs in a world that is fast disappearing. As the stories are told, ancient myths and legends including that of the Dreamtime (creation) are illuminated, and their importance...

After genocide ripped their nation apart in the 1990s, the women of Rwanda have led the healing process and have helped usher in a much-needed era of stability. By depicting the multifaceted efforts of women activists to build a sustainable peace between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, this Wide Angle documentary explores the challenges facing Rwanda. The film features an in-depth examination of the remarkable role Rwandan women play in politics...

Taking a grassroots approach to dealing with the physical and societal ills plaguing their countries, individuals and small groups in sub-Saharan Africa are creating success amidst widespread civil and economic instability. This program illustrates five empowering instances of solidarity and self-help: the Yeredeme project, run by single mothers in Mali; the Janjigui So association, for Malian women with improperly healed fistulas; the Fasil Circus,...

Filmed in Istanbul and Oslo, this artistic documentary by Turkish/Norwegian filmmaker Nefise Ozkal Lorentzen openly explores what it is like to be both gay and Muslim. Through the interrelated stories of a gay rights activist, a gay imam, drag artists, and others, Gender Me gently denounces homophobia in general, encourages discourse and engagement within Islam as a positive societal approach to coming to terms with sexual otherness, and seeks to...

Madam Bwa has never been trained, but she's delivered over 12,000 babies. She works on filthy floors and in crowded slums, while her mothers-to-be eat dirt to survive. From Ethiopia to Cambodia to Haiti, across the Third World life lies in fragile hands. In this beautiful doc the difficulties of childbirth are laid bare and the strategies to improve maternal health and mortality rates are explored with an affecting clarity. An intimate portrait of...

This program follows the progress of women's rights and equal employment from the Contra war through the term of former president Violeta Chamorro. A former Sandinista fighter who lost a foot laying mines for the Contras wants the government to give her a job; a woman displaced from her job by men returning from the war objects; another whose daughter was murdered by the Somozist Guard wants justice. Dozens of others tell their stories, as Chamorro...

Speaking in broad sociocultural terms, the overall Western attitude toward Africans has been one of race-based condescension. This program addresses that historically conflicted relationship and ways in which it is changing in sub-Saharan Africa through the stories of an idealistic young French-born woman involved with the Yeredeme project, which supports and educates single mothers in Mali; a Chilean-born freelance photographer/TV cameraman who has...

Are gender roles universal when it comes to leading a family or family group? Do the concepts of father, mother, offspring, and sibling change among different cultures? Is there a formula for the perfect family? In the Himalayas, that recipe may involve multiple husbands, and in certain provinces of China, it would be ridiculous for a man to be head of the household, while some communities in the U.S. have a long way to go before shedding the idea...