Tunisia comes under the spotlight, because it is rewriting the rules about what women can and can’t do in an Islamic country. Should it be a role model for its Muslim neighbours? Women have more rights in Tunisia than in any other Islamic country. Since independence in 1956, the Code of Personal Status banned polygamy, gave women almost the same rights in law as men - the freedom to divorce them - and the right to be educated. Following this came the right to vote, stand for office, set up a business, demand equal pay, and the right to an abortion eight years before American women won their right to choose. But has society kept pace with these advances in the law? A recent report indicating that 53% of Tunisian women experience violent attacks in their lifetime suggests legal equality is only part of the story. Based on the testimonies and experience of women (and some men) recorded in Tunisia, including rapper Boutheina ‘Medusa’ El Alouadi and Sayida Ounissi, deputy minister for employment, the team debate whether Tunisia’s ‘state feminism’ joins the My Perfect Country portfolio with the help of Dina Mansour-Ille from the Institute for Overseas Development.

(Photo: Tunisian women, one (L) wearing a 'burkini', at Ghar El Melh beach near Bizerte, north-east of Tunis. Credit: Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images)

David Attenborough reveals a side of himself that nobody knows, as a collector of music from all over the world. We hear the stories that surround it, and the music itself.

One of David Attenborough's first projects was 'Alan Lomax - Song Hunter', a television series he produced in 1953-4. The famous collector of the blues and folk music of America gathered traditional musicians from all over Britain and Ireland and, for the first time, they appeared on television. David loved the music, the people and, inspired by Lomax, he became music collector himself.

From the start there was a connection between wildlife and folk culture broadcasting: BBC natural history staff shared an office, and equipment, with colleagues busy recording traditional songs, tunes and stories. Soon after 'Song Hunter' Attenborough began travelling the world for the series 'Zoo Quest'. This time the hunt was for animals, captured live for London Zoo. The series also looked at the culture of local people and if he came across music Attenborough recorded it. In Paraguay he met some amazing harp players and recorded what became the series' signature tune. This started a craze. Remember Los Trios Paraguayos?

Wherever he went to make programmes David Attenborough recorded musicians. When the lads carrying the crew's baggage in New Guinea started singing, he taped them. He recorded songs in Borneo longhouses, drumming in Sierra Leone, gamelan music in Java, Aboriginal didgeridoo players and palace music in Tonga.

Attenborough gave the music to the BBC and it has sat, unheard, in the Sound Library ever since. Now he listens again to recordings he made half a century ago. He reveals the memories and stories they evoke, and his delight in the music.

Producer: Julian May.

Zoleka Mandela grew up in the spotlight that came with her grandfather's iconic status and enjoyed all the privilege that her family's fame had to offer her. And yet the life of Zoleka Mandela has been anything but easy. Abused as a child, she went on to struggle with drug abuse and addiction. She has lost two children and has been diagnosed with breast cancer twice. She talks to Nomsa Maseko for 100 women.

Photo: Zoleka Mandela, courtesy of Zoleka Mandela

Historian David Olusoga concludes his series with the three African kings who stood up to empire, an irresistible crooner, race riots in Liverpool and the shaping of black British identity in the 20th century.

Part of Radio 3's partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council working with academics to turn their research into radio, two New Generation Thinkers present documentaries on their special area of interest.

1. Hope Mirlees in Paris

The name Hope Mirlees is largely forgotten, but her long poem about Paris is increasingly considered a lost Modernist masterpiece. Set within a single day in post-World War One Paris, the poem features a collage of overheard snatches of conversation on the newly-opened Metro, children's games, ancient Greek jokes, French double entendres, musical notation, advertising jingles, memorials carved into gravestones, the cries of street vendors and much more.

Sandeep Parmar traces the poem from the house in the Rue de Beaune, which Hope Mirlees shared with the Cambridge classicist Jane Harrison, across the Seine to the Tuileries Gardens, up to seedier corners of Montmartre and back down to the doors of Notre Dame. She speaks with Lauren Elkin, the author of a recent book on women walking in Paris, Flaneuse; with Geoffrey Gilbert from the American University of Paris; and with Professor Mary Beard, who has written a biography of Jane Harrison.

With a new reading of extracts of the poem, Sandeep makes a powerful case for Paris to enter the canon of Modernist literature. Sandeep Parmar is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool.

Producer: Beaty Rubens

2. The Jews of North Africa during the Second World War. The story of the vibrant Jewish communities in North Africa during the Second World War and their subsequent fates has long been overshadowed by the destruction of European Jewry in Nazi occupied Europe. Here Professor Daniel Lee reveals the rich, multi-layered worlds of faith and culture in Tunisia, Morocco and Libya and the impact of the implementation of Vichy and Italian antisemitic laws that accompanied the Nazi invasion of North Africa in 1942. Such events are entirely unknown to British audiences. The Jews of North Africa are invisible in the Imperial War Museum's permanent exhibition on the Holocaust, which describes only the experiences of "Europe's Jews'

Producer: Mark Burman You can find more new research on BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking programmes broadcast last week as part of Radio 3's week long focus on fresh ideas and in the collection of New Generation Thinkers on the Free Thinking website and available to download as Arts and Ideas podcasts.

The anti-government protests that began in the Arab world in 2010 triggered division between the religious scholars of Islam’s largest branch – the traditional Sunnis. Some of the most senior Sunni scholars in the world held fast to the idea that revolution, and even simple protest, was forbidden in Islam. Others decided to back armed groups in Syria, though not the global jihadists of al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Presenter Safa Al Ahmad travels to Egypt to meet Dr Abbas Shouman, one of the most senior scholars at Islam’s most famous seat of learning, Al Azhar University. She also tells the story of Sheikh Ramadan al-Bouti, a famous Syrian Islamic scholar whose stance on the uprisings cost him his life.

(Photo: Anti-Government protesters in Cairo. Credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Presenter Salim Kikeke takes a journey into Tanzanian hip hop, tracing its transformation into Bongo Flava, which incorporates hip hop, Indian filmi, taraab, muzik wa dansi, dancehall beats and its latest development into Singeli.

He talks to Dully Sykes and producer P Funk from Bongo Records, as well as prominent and upcoming artists including Fid Q and Vanessa Mdee. The term Bongo Flava is derived from the Swahili word "ubongo", meaning brains. The genre has fans way beyond Tanzania, with the most popular artists beginning to perform in African countries like South Africa, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, as well as Europe and America.

(Photo: Tanzanian artists Pink (L) and (R) Vanessa Mdee)

The Amazigh women of Morocco have faced threats to their strong traditions and distinct religious identity for thousands of years. Celeste Hicks travelled high into the Atlas Mountains to find out how the Amazigh are dealing with a new threat – a stricter traditional version of Islam that could undermine their unique way of practising their faith.

She hears how the Amazigh are trying to hold on to many of their traditions such as carpet weaving and facial tattoos which the conservative forces that are becoming more influential would find ‘haram’ or forbidden. The Amazigh women are a strong independent force in their historic tribe which date back to the days of Jesus' time on earth and holding on to that identity is a continuing struggle.

(Photo: Amazigh women with facial tattoos carry their children on their backs)

*The programme have been re-edited since it was first broadcast to ensure that certain translations are more accurate*

What options do people in Ghana have when a person suffers mental illness? In this religious country, most people seek out spiritual interpretations or traditional methods of healing. Despite there being only 18 trained psychiatrists in the whole of Ghana, advocates of Western-style practices have been pushing for the use of medication and the human rights of the mentally ill. In this final programme of a four-part series, Christopher Harding asks whether spiritual and biological interpretations and treatments for mental illness can ever get along.

(Photo: A street in Ghana)

Cameroonian Richard Bona is described as one of the most electrifying and brilliant artists from Africa – from anywhere in fact. The legendary Quincy Jones, who has produced Bona's latest album, Heritage, describes him as “simply one of the most talented dudes on this planet”.

Richard Bona will be playing a selection of tunes from Heritage, and from his back catalogue, in an exclusive Global Beats session at the BBC's Maida Vale studios. He will be in conversation with presenter Bola Mosuro and taking questions from a studio audience about his life in Cameroon and the US and his extraordinary musical career.

In a change to its usual format, Global Beats is this month devoting the whole programme to a single outstanding musician.

Picture: Richard Bona, Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Simon Cox investigates the secretive world of one of Malawi’s biggest charities - Dapp (Development Aid from People to People). For decades governments including the US, UK and other European nations have donated many millions of dollars to DAPP for projects ranging from sanitation to teaching. But Dapp has a big secret – it is under the control of a Danish cult-like organisation called the Teachers Group.

It was set up in the 1970s and ran alternative schools in Denmark before expanding to Africa. Its members have to contribute up to a third of their salaries to ‘a common economy’, have to be available 24/7 under a principle called ‘common time’ and many complain of being ‘brainwashed’ by the organisation. Senior leaders of the Teachers Group are wanted by Interpol on fraud charges and are thought to be holed up in a $25m complex in Mexico. Danish investigators concluded the Teachers Group had been engaged in a complex financial fraud with over 100 charities, companies and offshore shells in 50 countries used in funding the lifestyle of the leaders.

Simon travels to Malawi to reveal DAPP's secrets, hearing from insiders about how it works and the toll it has taken on them and their families. He has also obtained access to a cache of documents revealing the links between the Teachers Group and DAPP and presents some of this evidence to UNICEF and DFiD in the UK.

*Since uploading this programme the UK's Department for International Development has suspended payments to DAPP and launched its own investigation*

This BBC investigation is in partnership with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR).

(Photo: A sanitation project in Malawi)

Ed Butler explores the secretive and shocking world of Malawi’s 'hyenas'. These are the men hired to sexually initiate adolescent and pre-adolescent girls – some said to be 12 years old, or even younger. It is a traditional custom that is endorsed and funded by the communities themselves, even the children’s families. Ed meets some of the victims, the regional chief campaigning to stop the practice, and the hyenas themselves, and ask if enough is being done to stamp out a custom that is not just damaging on a human scale, but is also undermining the country’s economic development.

(Photo: Three young girls in Malawi are interviewed by the BBC's Ed Butler)

Ed Butler explores the secretive and shocking world of Malawi's "hyenas". These are the men hired to sexually initiate or cleanse adolescent and pre-adolescent girls - some said to be 12 years old, or even younger. It's a traditional custom that is endorsed and funded by the communities themselves, even the children's families. We meet some of the victims, the regional chief campaigning to stop the practice, and the hyenas themselves, and ask if enough is being done to stamp out a custom that's not just damaging on a human scale, but is also undermining the country's economic development.

Reported and produced by Ed Butler.

Everyone loves giraffes, but what do we really know about them? Dr Julian Fennessy starts to reveal their secrets - the most important being that they are disappearing. In an urgent and daring mission, with a determined Ugandan team, he plans to round up 20 of the world's rarest giraffes to take across and beyond the mighty Nile River. The stakes are high, but if they succeed the reward will be a brighter future for an animal we have somehow overlooked.

Nkosi Sikelel iAfrica (Lord Bless Africa) is a song that runs through the very soul of South African life. It was originally composed in 1897 by Enoch Sontonga, a Xhosa clergyman at a Methodist mission school near Johannesburg, who is said to have been inspired by the melody of John Parry's Aberystwyth, a hymn that would have been shared by Welsh missionaries at that time. It went on to travel the African continent but most significantly it became one of the defining symbols of a united South Africa - a country that still holds this song at it's heart. Having travelled through the country's Christian congregations, it soon rang out from meetings and protest rallies throughout the apartheid era eventually becoming the unofficial anthem of the ANC (African National Congress Party). At a time of great hardship and pain, it was a song that offered hope and encouragement to millions of South Africans.

Having being sentenced to life imprisonment, Nkosi Sikelel iAfrica was the song that Nelson Mandela will have heard being sung out by his supporters as he and his fellow ANC members were driven away to Robben Island. Decades later it was the hymn that he would use to unify his country as it was adapted into the South African National Anthem. Featuring interviews with Albert Mazibuko of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Lord Joel Joffe, author Sindiwe Magona, Edward Griffiths - former CEO of South African Rugby during the 1995 World Cup, music journalist Robin Denslow and the Za Foundation's Zakhele Choir.

(Photo: African National Congress (ANC) supporters sing the South African national anthem Nkosi Sikelel' i-Africa (God bless Africa) while an ANC soldier stands guard during Nelson Mandela's election campaign rally in Mahwelereng 02 April 1994. Credit: Walter Dhladhla/AFP/Getty Images)

Some 92% of married Egyptian women aged between 15-49 have had their genitals cut. FGM is more common in Egypt than anywhere else in the world. These astonishing statistics are all the more surprising when you consider that Egypt banned the practise in 2008. So why is FGM so prevalent in Egypt? Four expert witnesses tell us about the challenge of turning a widely-followed tradition into a crime.

(Photo: A gynaecologist co-operating with the Coptic Center for Training and Development gives a lecture on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in a village close to Beni Sueif, south of Cairo. Credit: Getty Images)

South Africa’s President Zuma is in deep trouble.

Accusations of corruption and unexplained ministerial appointments have fuelled widespread suspicions that the South African state has been “captured”. At the heart of this accusation are the Gupta brothers - a secretive family of Indian-born entrepreneurs. From modest beginnings in the 1990s, the Guptas’ South African business empire grew dramatically. Boosted, it is said, by their alleged influence over state contracts, political appointments and President Zuma himself.

In this edition of Assignment, Michael Robinson tells the story of “Guptagate” - how one of the fiercest political storms since the ending of apartheid has swept South Africa and its increasingly embattled President.

Producer: Leo Hornak

(Image: The Economic Freedom Fighters party hold a rally)

'Queer' Wars: The claim that LGBT rights are human rights meets fierce, sometimes deadly opposition in many parts of the world. Politicians and religious leaders invoke tradition to deflect such universal claims, accusing Western activists of neo colonial interference. Laurie Taylor talks to Dennis Altman, Professorial Fellow in Human Security at La Trobe University, Melbourne, who has examined the international polarisation over sexual rights. He asks how best we can advocate for change in contexts where people face violence and imprisonment for their sexuality and gender. They're joined by Lama Abu- Odeh, Professor in Law at Georgetown University, Washington.

Also, Nigerian Beauty Pageants. Juliet Gilbert, Teaching Fellow in African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham, reflects on the popularity of such spectacles in a country where crowned winners use pageantry as a 'platform' for success, hoping to overcome the double bind of gender and generation in a deeply religious and patriarchal society.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Illegal miners have invaded three Ghanaian gold mines in recent months. We visit the largest where some locals are claiming that the land is rightfully theirs. The multinational owners disagree and are demanding the military force them off their concession. For its part, the government has remained largely silent, until now. Ed Butler visits the mine and speaks to all sides in a dispute that could have big implications for Ghana's economy and security.

(Photo: A man stands at the entrance to a mine)