The Oasis
A radical experiment in democracy and women's rights is under way in the old badlands of Islamic State. But as Yaara Bou Melhem reports, it could be crushed in an instant.
It was love at first sight – Azad, 26. My dreams are coming true! – Bercem, 19
Lovestruck couple Azad and Bercem are about to get married. They want the usual things - kids, a nice house, a car. They're just hoping war doesn't get in the way.
Azad and Bercem live in the town of Kobani in north eastern Syria, smack bang in the former territory of Islamic State. Their dream of a normal, peaceful life is shared by millions of fellow Kurds who now lead control of this area and are carving out a bold new system – a direct, secular democracy that enshrines gender equality.
For Azad and Bercem, that means getting married in a civil ceremony, no sheikh required.
We are building democracy, building a life we'd never dreamed of - Azad
In the drably named Autonomous Administration of North Eastern Syria, women hold 50 percent of official positions. Incredibly, Raqqa, the once notorious capital of Islamic State, is now headed by a young woman, Leila Mustapha. The bomber jacket-clad Mustapha is using her civil engineering skills to rebuild the city which will include a makeover of the square where IS displayed crucified and decapitated bodies.
The locals called it ‘Hell Roundabout' because of all the brutal acts committed here – Leila Mustapha
As she tours Raqqa with reporter Yaara Bou Melhem, she does what would have been unthinkable under ISIS: she shakes hands with men on a worksite.
But ISIS isn't wholly gone. It clings to a tiny pocket of territory south of Raqqa, moving among civilians as protection from attack, as Yaara Bou Melham discovers on a trip to the frontline.
The Kurdish-led authority has some 900 ISIS foreign fighters in jail and it wants their home countries to take them back. One prisoner tells Bou Melhem how ISIS pushed its fighters:
If you're not going to fight, you're not going to eat. People, kids, died from starvation - prisoner
ISIS is now the least of the administration's problems. To the west they must deal with Syria's Assad regime and to the north, the biggest worry, Turkey, which has sworn to smash the Kurds when Donald Trump pulls out American troops.
Soldier Azad and journalist Bercem know a Turkish invasion could wreck their new life together. They will do what they know best.
If necessary, he will go to war – Bercem
She will report the situation and expose it to the world – Azad
Trailer
Recently Updated Shows
EastEnders
Set in the East End of London, the show focuses on the tensions between love and family with stories ranging from hard-hitting social issues, to personal, human tragedies. And there's plenty of funny moments too.
Classic characters old and new across thousands of episodes have shared a drink in The Queen Vic, shed tears of despair or joy, sat on Arthur's bench in the Square... and at some point or other they probably crossed paths with Ian Beale.
The Yogurt Shop Murders
In 1991, four teenage girls were brutally murdered at a frozen yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. What happened that night forever shook the Austin community and continues to mystify the police and haunt the families left in the wake of unthinkable loss. Including interviews with the investigative teams, the victims' parents and siblings, and the two men who served time for the crime, the series explores law enforcement practices and raises complex questions about press coverage and the power of suggestion on memory. The series offers a unique window into the lasting effects of grief and the enduring impact of unrelenting crime coverage in mainstream media through poignant interviews with those closest to the crime and investigation.
The Gilded Age
The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic change, of huge fortunes made and lost, and the rise of disparity between old money and new.
Against this backdrop of change, the story begins in 1882 — introducing young Marian Brook, the orphaned daughter of a Union general, who moves into the New York City home of her thoroughly old money aunts Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook. Accompanied by Peggy Scott, an accomplished African-American woman, Marian inadvertently becomes enmeshed in a social war between one of her aunts, a scion of the old money set, and her stupendously rich neighbors, a ruthless railroad tycoon and his ambitious wife, George and Bertha Russell.
In this exciting new world that is on the brink of the modern age, will Marian follow the established rules of society, or forge her own path?
Alien: Earth
When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet's greatest threat. As members of the crash recovery crew search for survivors among the wreckage of a mysterious crashed space vessel, they encounter mysterious predatory life forms more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. With this new threat unlocked, the search crew must fight for survival and what they choose to do with this discovery could change planet Earth as they know it.
The Crow Girl
The Crow Girl begins with the gruesome discovery of a teenage boy's body discarded in plain sight. Determined to find who is responsible, DCI Jeanette Kilburn joins forces with psychotherapist Sophia Craven to hunt the killer despite opposition from her superiors including confidant DI Lou Stanley.
The investigation takes them into a dangerous world of historic abuse and murder. Together they uncover a chain of shocking events involving the disappearance of children that have gone overlooked for decades, as well as evidence of police corruption. As the body count rises and the two women are dragged into the depths of the murders, an intimacy starts to form between them, and so begins a complex, twisted love story. All the while, the killer is inching ever closer to home.