Innholdsfortegnelse for 8/22/2022 i The Big Issue

BIG PICTURE Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last August, girls across much of the country have not been able to access education. They were banned from high schools, a supposedly temporary measure, but one with no end in sight. Parents have had to find alternative ways to educate their daughters. These girls are learning the Quran in Noor mosque in Kabul. According to the head of the mosque, Maulvi Bakhtullah, the number of female students has multiplied after religious study was the only way for girls to access any kind of education. There are reported splits within the Taliban about the ban. It’s an open secret that several high-level government figures send their daughters to study abroad, and others attend secret schools. Notable clerics, such as Rahimullah Haqqani,…

In the run-up to the 2019 General Election, Labour’s Angela Rayner was asked if her party would “nationalise sausages”. Now, with the cost-of-living crisis highlighting the urgent need for solutions, two-thirds of Tory voters are in favour of nationalising energy companies if they can’t lower bills, according to a new poll. Overall, just 13 per cent of the public are opposed to bringing energy companies back into public ownership, polling from YouGov has revealed. There’s certainly a clamour for nationalisation and it goes beyond the electricity firms raking in massive profits while families struggle to make ends meet. But would it solve problems in the here and now – bringing down energy bills, making trains run on time and cleaning up our rivers? And would it be a long-term solution…

INTERVIEW ‘I’M NOT SCARY, I’M CUDDLY’ Hugh Bonneville is the quintessential Englishman. Charming, genteel, slightly bumbling, he’s showcased our most endearing qualities to the world via global smashes Downton Abbey and the Paddington movies. In his latest film, I Came By from director Babak Anvari, he plays Sir Hector Blake, a highly esteemed judge targeted by a graffiti artist (George MacKay) who breaks into his home to have a go at an establishment figure by tagging his sitting room wall. “Hector Blake is a man who has stood up for the underdog,” Bonneville says. “He’s a pillar of the establishment. And thank goodness there are people like him to fly the flag for decency and honour.” But there’s more to Hector Blake than meets the eye. People who intrude in…

FOODBANKS A £500 bill just to keep the fridges on. How the energy crisis is now even threatening Britain’s foodbanks A foodbank serving 3,000 people is facing closure by Christmas, as soaring energy bills leave it struggling to cover its costs. We Care Food Bank in South London, which says it is the largest in Britain, says costs including £500 monthly charges to run its fridges are leaving it on the brink of bankruptcy. Its founder, Ray Barron-Woolford, warns independent foodbanks all over the country are making the same bleak choices. “We will barely get to Christmas, but we won’t survive beyond that because you can’t get funding to run your fridges,” he told The Big Issue. “The people we reach are those right at the very bottom, who fall…

INTERVIEW ‘I BELIEVE IN THE RESILIENCE OF ART’ “The Taliban scares me but not as much as I scare them. I’m a woman from Afghanistan and I’m a musician. My songs told stories of femininity, pain and the spirit of resistance.” These are the defiant words of Elaha Soroor, a singer, composer and designer from Afghanistan. Soroor shot to fame in her country in 2008 after appearing on Afghan Star, their equivalent of The X Factor. She says: “When I first performed to Afghan audiences as a young woman, I met girls who told me that they feel braver and empowered by watching me on the TV. The Taliban didn’t like that at all, a strong progressive role model for Afghan girls. But we won’t be silenced.” After a series…

PODCAST How sex education is failing the young Harmful myths about sex led journalist Sophia Smith Galer to develop a painful psychosexual disorder. Angry at how she had been let down, she set out to investigate sex education in the 21st century. From classroom to doctor’s surgery to social media, she exposed a “sex misinformation crisis” with serious consequences for women and men’s mental and physical health. “I identify as a victim of sex myths,” she says. “My sex education was extremely limited. I’m angry about that, and I want it to change.” Smith Galer (pictured) is well placed to take on that battle. A news pioneer on TikTok, her informative videos have been viewed more than 100 million times, and she boasts more than 400,000 followers around the world.…

BIG ISSUE INVEST Milton Keynes to get a film academy after Big Issue backs grassroots film-making project A young man draws a flick knife and goes after another young man on the phone. In the nick of time, a bystander intervenes, keeping them apart. It’s a scene in a short film, but could easily be real. It’s been put together by a group of young people trying to spread awareness about knife crime in Milton Keynes – some of whom with experience of situations like this. The company behind the films, World Media Initiatives (WMI), works with young people from disadvantaged communities, as well as those at risk of going into custody, to teach them film-making skills. It has just received a £50,000 investment from Big Issue Invest, the investment…

In the middle of a high-profile break from cricket, taken last summer to protect his mental health, England test captain Ben Stokes sat down with Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes for a documentary about his life and career. He barely remembers being interviewed. “I was just a shadow of myself,” he admits, saying he had to watch the tapes back to get a sense of what he actually said. “I don’t really remember what I was saying, what we were speaking about.” Stokes looks back and realises he could quite easily have never come back. “In that period of my life, that’s where I was. I could see myself not,” he says. The documentary, Phoenix from the Ashes, shows Stokes in the middle of his break, talking candidly about having a…

Crossword CRYPTIC CLUES Across 1. Thought I had dug out silver (8)6. Being in it means trouble of course (4)8. Close these days to Joanne at home (6)9. Sickness can grip a boy (6)10. Land’s End, presumably, if all else fails (4,6)12. Order band to keep up (6)14. Councillor puts a tax on neckwear (6)15. The image of a cameraman (10)19. Writing instrument used in some hasty letters (6)20. Become more tolerant when half tipsy (6)21. Reorganise first four letters to do some crystal-gazing (4)22. Spanish port endlessly producing an aromatic herb (8) Down 2. Sailors leave modern fashion (4)3. Ghost coming from the lough (5)4. Not an employer’s failure to exercise a right (3-4)5. Show reluctance when endlessly reserved (5)6. Eli is as confused in central Europe (7)7. Proceeding…