Podcasts Other Woman's Hour Stammering, Sharing intimate images without consent and The art of repairs

Stammering, Sharing intimate images without consent and The art of repairs

Published: March 10, 2021, 11:10 a.m.

During lockdown, when we haven't quite had access to the shops we might need, many have turned to 'fixing up' items around the house, and mending our own clothes. With the popularity of shows like The Repair Shop and Salvage Hunters, what stories do our possessions carry, and how can restoration keep them alive? Emma meets Molly Martin, an illustrator, textile repairer, and author of 'The Art of Repair' who runs workshops on how to mend mindfully. More than 70 women in a small English town have had their private, often naked, images stolen and shared online by people living in their community. The indecent images, including some of underage girls, are thought to be taken via hacking or provided by former boyfriends and uploaded anonymously on a website which features 73,000 images of women from across the world. Members of this online forum specifically request and target girls in the places they live in. The victims have reported the abuse to the police who, so far, say they are unable to help due to the current laws. As the town has a tight community, most of the victims know each other and have alerted those they recognise when the images appear. About a dozen of the victims have banded together and setup a group to try and get justice. Emma speaks to one of the women, Ruby, and to Maria Miller MP, who has been campaigning for the better protection against image based sexual abuse. Stammering, also known as stuttering, is a relatively common speech problem in childhood, which can persist into adulthood. Around 1 in 12 young children go through a phase of stammering, and around 2 in 3 will grow out of it. It's estimated that stammering affects around 1 in 100 adults, with women being around 3 to 4 times more less likely to stammer than men. Emma is joined by Felicity Baker, a producer with BBC News, who has been making the documentary I Can’t Say My Name: Stammering in the Spotlight and Mandy Taylor, a former trustee of STAMMA and now a member and volunteer who works to support families affected by stammering.