01/12/2009

Synopsis

With Jane Garvey.

Annie Lennox joins Jane to talk about AIDS in South Africa. Every day more than 1,000 people are newly infected by HIV there. Ten per cent of young people aged 15-24 are HIV positive and three quarters of them are young women. To mark World Aids Day, Annie talks about what's being done to help those who are living with the disease, as well as educating the wider population of the risks.

Ninety years ago, on December 1st 1919, Nancy Astor became the first female MP to sit in Parliament. There's a chance to hear part of an interview Nancy gave on Woman's Hour in 1956 recollecting the momentous event. Jane is then joined by Lesley Abdela, a journalist and women's rights campaigner, and Dr Wendy Stokes from London Metropolitan University to discuss the various attempts there have been to increase the number of women MPs.

This Friday the film Departures is released. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film and tells the story of a man who loses his job as a professional cellist in an orchestra and finds employment as a nokanshi or 'encoffineer', a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. The film is revealing about Japanese attitudes towards death - but how different are these to the way we approach bereavement in the UK? Jane is joined by Vanessa Hannam, a novelist and trustee of Cruse Bereavement Care, and Hiromi Yamashita, who has worked in the UK for 10 years.

There was a time when all that mattered about clothes shopping was, 'Can I get into this, does it suit me, and can my bank balance stand it?' But increasingly, it seems, conscience is coming into the equation, and ethical fashion is on the rise. Organic wool is still in its infancy; even the standards for it are still a work in progress. But its enthusiasts claim organic wool is better for the environment, the sheep and even the wearer. Woman's Hour goes to meet one of its pioneers.