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In India, official figures suggest that one in three women experience domestic violence. In 2023, police registered over 130,000 cases of marital abuse and more than 6,000 women were killed in disputes relating to dowries. Despite these high numbers, societal attitudes to domestic abuse are changing only very slowly in the country, with families often reluctant to be seen to be interfering in a daughter's marriage. Now a new short film, Band Baaja Bitiya (Hindi for "a wedding band and a daughter") is setting out to push the pace of change. Geeta Pandey, Women and Social Affairs Editor for 麻豆社 India, looked into the true story that inspired the film.

In February this year, a Kenyan woman called Joy, who was a 19-year-old student at the time, discovered that she was at the centre of a viral video circulating on the 鈥妔ocial media platform, TikTok. In it, she is approached 鈥奲y a man who says he is from Russia and their interaction is secretly filmed by him. Several other similar clips of women were shared widely online. The creator of the videos had been promoting himself online as a so-called pickup coach and his content has proved extremely popular. But for many of the women, these videos have had real life consequences. Mungai Ngige from the 麻豆社's Disinformation Unit investigates.

The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the 麻豆社 World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the 麻豆社's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts.

Recent episodes have investigated Russia鈥檚 youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the 麻豆社 team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India.

If you want to know more about Venezuela鈥檚 acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin鈥檚 network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.

Presenter: Faranak Amidi.
Producer: Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich)