Home  >  The History Hour  >  Brazil's ban on women in football and the first air fryer
The History Hour
Brazil's ban on women in football and the first air fryer
The History Hour
Jul 13, 2024

We hear about the law in Brazil which made it illegal for women and girls to play football for 40 years.

Dilma Mendes shares her incredible experience of being arrested numerous times as a child, just for kicking a ball. Our guest, Alexandra Allred, herself a pioneering sportswomen, discusses the discrimination women have faced to break into competitive sport.

Plus, the moment when the 'Queen of Salsa', banned from Cuba by Fidel Castro, was allowed to return to Cuban territory for one performance.

We learn about the brutal crushing of a student movement in 1968 in Mexico City 10 days before the Olympic Games, which ended in dozens being killed.

Also, the start of an environmental movement in Italy in 1988, and the invention of the air fryer. The prototype was nearly as big as a dog kennel and made of wood and aluminium.

Contributors: Dilma Mendes - defied Brazil's ban on women playing football. Alexandra Allred - author of When Women Stood: The Untold History of Females Who Changed Sports and the World. Omer Pardillo Cid - manager and close friend of Celia Cruz. David Huerta - witness to the Mexico City massacre in 1968. Rosa Porcu - a protester against the 'poison ships' docked in Italy in 1988. Suus van der Weij - daughter of Fred van der Weij, inventor of the air fryer.

More Episodes
Jun 21, 2025
Jaws and the Charleston church shooting

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

This programme includes outdated and offensive language.

It’s 50 years since the original Jaws film was released in cinemas across America. The movie premiered on 20 June 1975. Our guest is Jenny He, senior exhibitions curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. She tells us about the history of this blockbuster movie. We also hear from Carl Gottlieb, who co-wrote the screenplay.

Also, the story of the women who were forcibly detained in sexual health clinics across East Germany, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, and the 1964 civil rights swimming protest that ended when acid was poured into the pool.

Finally, the horrific account of Polly Sheppard who was a survivor of the Charleston church shooting in South Carolina, USA in 2015.

Contributors: Carl Gottlieb - Jaws co-writer. Jenny He - senior exhibitions curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Sabine - one of the women forcibly detained and abused in a sexual health clinic in East Germany. Archive of William Norman Ewer - journalist who attended the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Archive of JT Johnson and Mimi Jones -activists in a civil rights swimming protest . Polly Sheppard- survivor of the Charleston Church shooting.

This programme contains movie excerpts from the 1975 film which was a Universal Picture, a Zanuck/Brown production and directed by Steven Spielberg. (Photo: Steven Spielberg on the set of the film 'Jaws' in 1975. Credit: Archive Photos/Stringer)


51min 07sec




Brazil's ban on women in football and the first air fryer

--:--
--:--