The Interview

'What the regime does to women is even if they don't kill us, when you stop a woman from being herself, stop her from speaking the way she wants to or stop her from connecting, it’s a kind of murder. And so we're fighting for our existence. We're fighting our survival.’
Svetlana Reiter speaks to the Iranian-American writer, Azar Nafisi, about the current instability in the country of her birth as Iranians continue to seek regime change in Tehran.
Born in Tehran in 1956, the story of her life has been greatly shaped by the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979, when Nafisi taught English literature at the University of Tehran. She was expelled from the University for not wearing a hijab, and eventually left for the US less than two decades later.
Nafisi is best-known for her New York Times bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, in which she wrote about her experiences under the Islamic regime. The book focuses on a short period before she left Iran in 1997, when she would gather a group of young women at her house one morning every week to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature.
Thank you to the BBC Russian Service for their help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Russian punk activist Maria Alyokhina, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and author Sir Salman Rushdie. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Svetlana Reiter
Producers: Anastasia Soroka and Ben Cooper
Editor: Damon Rose
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Azar Nafisi Credit: Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Even though we say we want to be self-sufficient, we don't think global solidarity must be dropped. Because if it gets dropped, the world will be in trouble.”
Mayeni Jones the BBC’s Africa correspondent speaks to Dr Aaron Motsoaledi South Africa’s health minister a year on since the US announced foreign aid cuts. At the time he called the USAID freeze a wake up call for Africa.
Dr Motsoaledi, has been at the centre of South Africa’s public health response for more than a decade. A medical doctor by training, he first took on the health portfolio in 2009, overseeing the world’s largest HIV treatment programme.
In this conversation he explains how the country is filling the aid gap and where progress stands in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Syria’s only female cabinet minister, Hind Kabawat, Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo and Mexican actor, Diego Calva. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Mayeni Jones
Producers: Ed Habershon, Farhana Haider
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Dr Aaron Motsoaledi Credit: PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)

“Most Venezuelans are thinking about the future: Will things improve? Will deep changes come? Will we reunite as a people with our history, dreams, and hopes?”
BBC correspondent Norberto Paredes speaks to Henrique Capriles, a Venezuelan opposition leader, about his vision for a new Venezuela.
In the aftermath of President Maduro’s capture by the United States, Henrique Capriles is one of the key political voices emerging - an alternative to the high-profile Maria Corina Machado, Nobel-prize winner and vocal supporter of Trump’s intervention.
Now it is time for Venezuela’s opposition to unite, he says, and bring democracy to the country.
Henrique Capriles narrowly lost out on the presidency in both 2012 and 2013, before being banned from standing for public office for many years. In 2025, he was elected to the National Assembly.
Thank you to the BBC Mundo team for its help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa and President Lula da Silva of Brazil. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Norberto Paredes
Producers: Nathalia Passarinho and Lucy Sheppard
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Henrique Capriles Credit: REUTERS/Marco Bello)

Katy Watson speaks to Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner about the country’s social media ban for under 16s: “To keep kids away until they're ready, I think that is the monumental circuit breaker move that we need to move to,” she says.
Brought up in Seattle, North America Julie has spent her career in the technology sector working for Microsoft, Twitter and Adobe in public policy and safety before moving into government.

She moved to Australia more than 25 years ago and from 2017 Julie has been working on online safety. In her role as commissioner she has become the target of free speech absolutists like Elon Musk, wh have accused of her trying to censor the internet.
No stranger to controversy and abuse, she’s now the public face of Australia’s landmark social media ban for children under 16 which came into force in December.
Now countries around the world are considering similar bans as cases of online addiction, self harm and abuse are reportedly on the rise.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations and Taiwan’s cyber ambassador Audrey Tang. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Katy Watson
Producer: Dan Soekov, Clare Williamson, Farhana Haider
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Julie Inman Grant Credit: Reuters)

'It's hard to be the only woman, I feel lonely sometimes because I’d like to have another woman colleague to talk to.’
The BBC’s Chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet speaks to Hind Kabawat, Syria’s Minister for Social Affairs and Labour. and the only female minister in the transitional government.
She was born in India and grew up across the Middle East and Europe. Her life has been shaped by movement, exile and conflict. She studied economics in Damascus, law in Beirut, and later continued her education in the United States.
During Syria’s war, she worked abroad on diplomacy and legal reform, advising on negotiations and pushing for greater representation of women in public life. After the fall of the Assad regime and the creation of a transitional authority, she returned home to take up public office.
In this conversation, she talks about power, responsibility, and what leadership means in a country still reckoning with more than a decade of conflict.
Thank you to the Global Women team for their help in making this programme.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with the Colombian president Gustavo Petro, the Palestinian-American human rights lawyer Noura Erekat and Mexican actor Diego Calva. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Lyse Doucet
Producers: Lina Shaikhouni, Farhana Haider
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Hind Kabavat Credit: Beyza Comert/Getty Images)