Original subtitles

Hello and welcome to Global Eye,

the programme that brings you the best

of the BBC World Service,

from hard-hitting documentaries

to inspiring stories of hope and resilience.

I'm Katy Watson, the BBC's Australia correspondent,

and this week, we're in the country's

most populous city, Sydney.

Now, Iran may be over 8,000 miles away,

but the ripples of war there are causing waves here.

For the past week, I've been reporting on the Iranian women

footballers who sought asylum after their refusal to sing

the national anthem ahead of a match at the Asian Women's Cup

led them to being called "traitors".

Now, most of the team have left Australia, reportedly under duress.

What does their decision tell us about a country whose treatment

of women has long been the subject of international condemnation?

Thousands of women were arrested

during Iran's Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

Many were sent to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.

We'll bring you the shocking stories of some of those women.

Even though the prison has caged us, it cannot cage our voices.

They sentence some of us to longer in jail.

And the controversy over the future of coal

has become a polarising issue here.

We'll bring you the story of one Aboriginal family's fight

to stop a mine on their traditional land.

The case of the Iranian national women's football team,

who refused to sing their national anthem at a match

just days after the start of the war

has become a huge story here in Australia.

Initially, seven of the players sought asylum,

but five have now returned home.

Human rights groups say they were under huge pressure

due to threats to their families back in Iran.

Iranian state-controlled media say they made a patriotic decision,

but will the women really be welcomed back with open arms?

Iran has, for many years, been ranked near the bottom

of global league tables for women's rights.

In 2022, the Woman, Life, Freedom protests for women's rights

were brutally repressed by the government,

and many female activists were arrested and imprisoned inside

Tehran's infamous Evin Prison.

In 2024, the BBC revealed the stories of women inside prison,

pieced together from multiple reliable sources,

transforming their experiences into an award-winning animated film

narrated by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,

the British-Iranian woman who herself spent five years

detained in Evin Prison.

That film is Songs From Inside,

the stories of some of the women the regime tried to silence.

There's no sound here.

No trees.

And it just smells like poison.

A poison that doesn't kill insects.

Before the protests, Nasim lived an ordinary life -

a hairdresser who loved rap music.

LOUD RATTLING

The jailer would knock on the cell door and say,

"Do you hear that?

"They're beating them.

"Be ready - you're next."

I'm interrogated 10-12 hours every day.

I survived by rapping protest songs to myself.

SHE WHISPERS

When one of your friends gets shot and killed,

you will never be the same person again.

But there were moments I thought this darkness would never end.

HEARTBEAT

Then I heard the sound of your heartbeat for the first time,

with every beat, hope shone brighter and brighter in me.

This is not Resvaneh's first time in prison for her activism,

but this time is different.

She's found out that she's pregnant.

SHE SINGS SOFTLY

When they told me you were a girl, my tears flowed.

You and I aren't meant to grow together in prison.

Why should you have to grow up in a cage?

Sometimes I play you the sound of the rain,

the birds, the forest,

and I feel you dancing and swimming like a fish.

I've been bleeding.

The doctors tell me there is a risk of miscarriage.

I'm scared.

Vida's crime was journalism.

Inside these walls, painting and her inmates keep her alive.

GULLS CAW

WATER SPLASHES

I painted the corridor like the ocean.

It was like falling deep under the sea.

The guard said if she painted anything politically sensitive,

they would take away her colours.

DOOR SLAMS

After four months in solitary,

Nasim is transferred to the main ward to await her sentence.

The prisoners surrounded me.

WOMEN TALK

I could only cry.

They're like butterflies that fly around you.

They soothed my wounded wings.

My sweet girl, Mehfar,

you'll be born in less than seven weeks.

I dreamed of you today at dawn.

In my dream, you sat in front of me.

Why were you frowning and so sad and full of questions?

My little strawberry, I know you've been under a lot of stress.

Please forgive me, my little girl, if you were hurt.

In a ward with 70 other women,

your bunk bed is the only space of your own.

The prison bedsheets are Vida's canvas.

She sees the hills from the prison window and paints the seasons.

THUNDER CRASHES

Autumn.

Winter.

Spring.

Summer.

And then autumn again.

THUNDER CRASHES

Despite the darkness,

the women fight for small things to bring colour to their lives.

UPBEAT MUSIC

Narges's mischief always brings joy.

LAUGHTER

Like on weekends, she sings.

Narges, you're embarrassing us.

You won the Nobel Peace Prize,

try and be a little bit more dignified.

The prison tries to take the lipstick away from her lips,

but Narges doesn't let them, even for one second.

It's true what they say, though - prison is a hopeless place.

When you're alone, those feelings like failure.

Sometimes I ask myself, all the things I did that led me to prison,

did they make any difference?

My friends have all left Iran.

One by one, they've left.

But if I go, I admit defeat and add to the hopelessness.

The hangings take place after the call to prayer at dawn.

Nasim has been waiting for her sentence for 500 days.

There are other women too, suspended between life and death.

Every Tuesday, the women protest against executions.

The No To Execution campaign has spread from behind prison walls

into the world.

Even though the prison has caged us, it cannot cage our voices.

They sentence some of us to longer in jail

and cut our phone calls and visits.

For one person at least, the weight of the hangman's noose has lifted.

Today they announced my sentence - 74 lashes,

six years in prison, 20 years in exile.

I could breathe again.

I embraced the life I felt I would lose at any moment.

But the flow of executions has not stopped,

so neither have our protests,

and every Tuesday it repeats.

My dear, you're here.

Please forgive me for not having milk to give you.

It's because of the stress of prison.

When I touch your hair,

you remind me of the beautiful girl shot in her prime,

for just a few strands of hair.

Don't be afraid. I promise to stay by your side

until you can fight for your freedom.

Hoping for better days, my beautiful girl.

Now, Australia is leading the world with a big social experiment.

Last December, it introduced a social media ban for under-16s,

basically kicking teens off their favourite platforms.

It's a bold move, one that's been welcomed by many parents here,

concerned about their young people going online.

But it's also made enemies of big tech companies,

who say it's the wrong approach,

and, more importantly, it doesn't keep young teens safe.

Now, while it's a controversial piece of legislation,

the big question people are asking is, "Will it work?"

In December 2024, a law was passed telling companies they had a year

to come up with ways of making sure that under-16s

remained off their platforms.

And then, last December, that legislation kicked in.

Ten platforms were under the legislation,

including TikTok, Instagram,

and Snapchat.

Now, if they don't comply with the law,

they could face fines of more than $30 million US.

Lots think the ban is pointless,

that legislation can't keep up with technology,

that teens will find workarounds and carry on regardless.

Then there's also the fear that,

if kids are banned from the big platforms, where could they go?

Could they end up in less regulated areas of the internet?

And what about the effect on LGBTQI+ youth, disabled teens,

and rural kids, many of whom rely on social media to find their people?

Early on, the government did say that nearly five million accounts

had been deactivated in the first few days of the ban.

Impressive numbers, sure, but it doesn't tell you

where teens are going or how many accounts were opened elsewhere.

I've spoken to plenty who say nothing has changed for them.

And the other question is, how do you test success?

Is it the number of accounts being closed,

or do you ask teachers whether the kids are doing better at school,

and parents and carers how their children are feeling?

Other countries have been watching Australia closely in recent months.

As well as the UK, Denmark has announced plans to ban social media

for under-15s, while Norway is considering a similar proposal.

Other countries, including France and Spain,

are looking at potential regulation.

There's lots of research being done on the impact of the legislation,

but a few things, I think, stand out. First of all,

there are plenty of teenagers who are still on social media.

For many, nothing has changed

and that's OK, says the government. That's what they expected.

But they still think the legislation is worthwhile

because their focus is also on younger teens,

those who are not on social media yet.

They hope that the legislation will act as a circuit breaker,

so if they're not on social media,

there won't be the pressure to do so.

And that, says the government, will change childhoods.

As the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said, it will

take people away from screens and back onto the footy fields.

Many Aboriginal Australians whose ancestors were here

before European colonisation are still feeling the effects

of historic injustices. One of the most complex issues is land rights.

Who owns the land here, what can it be used for,

and who can profit from it?

All these questions are the subject of fierce, emotive debate

that can sometimes divide the Aboriginal communities themselves.

Add in the politics of climate change

and the arguments can become even more fraught.

As part of the BBC World Service's Life At 50 Degrees series,

which explores the impact of extreme climate change around the world,

the BBC Eye team followed one Aboriginal family

as they risked everything to stop a multinational mining company

digging a coal mine in Doongmabulla Springs,

land they hold sacred. Here's their story.

We're going in here for a cultural purpose.

Can't stop us from coming in here, though.

Who are you?

This is private property here, sir.

It's within our power to escalate this,

so charges will be laid.

Do you have the authority to trespass?

I have the authority to take video footage to the police.

We're traditional owners.

If you want to escalate it, you escalate it.

Thank you. We're going in.

Where my land is, there's a mine that's trying to destroy my country,

and that country there is the road map to my history

and knowledge about who I am and my ancestors.

The controversial coal mine project has been fiercely debated

for nearly a decade amid concerns about climate change.

Politically, Adani has been sold as a job-creating bonanza.

Without mining, these towns would be nothing.

Yeah! Go, Adani!

Now, this is a shocking decision that's handing over billions

of litres of precious groundwater to a billionaire

to build a dirty coal mine.

The water is the most important thing to our people.

That spring is the most important thing to our people.

The water can't fight for itself.

So the purpose we've come out here is for ceremony

and for ritual, to cleanse the place, pay respect,

and come back to where creation began.

My grandmother, great-grandmother, she belonged to the water.

They're water people.

This is where we belong.

And we're expressing our connection to land, environment, nature...

...and the water.

The young fellas come down to learn as well about it,

so in the future, they'll look after this place,

just like their old people used to do.

In the beginning, in the creation period

when the earth was void, it was a dark place.

The Great Spirit gave us the Gurri, the sun.

As the water hit the sunshine,

what came down was the Mundagara, the Rainbow Serpent.

And when the Mundagara landed here, all life came about.

The Adani Group says the new mine will bring jobs

and deliver royalties that will benefit Australia.

Australia is already one of the world's top coal producers.

The coal mine will be one of the largest in the world,

boosting Australia's exports by 20%.

This is our makeshift camp.

This is our kitchen that we've got here at the moment.

But we'll show you around the place.

And in here is Dummul, our possum.

We found her out on the Gregory Highway.

Come on.

Come on, let's get you some watermelons.

Come on.

Waddananggu came about from our resistance

to Adani and their operations,

and their threat of destroying Doongmabulla Springs.

The fire had never stopped.

It's become a symbol of our existence.

My son, he's a miner.

And my other son, he's also in the mines.

The Greens don't like us doing it,

but, hey, it creates a lot of employment.

Where there's employment, there's housing,

and where there's housing,

there's dollars spent and keeps the whole economy going.

There's good and bad, but they do do a lot of community support, 100%.

Lots of jobs.

I used to live in a coal mining town, and there's not a lot of

facilities in coal mining towns.

So, it gives an opportunity for people to be in the industry

and not have to necessarily live very far away from their families

and still have all the modern conveniences of living in town,

so I think that's probably a plus that Bravus do really well.

But I think, track record wise, I think they're doing OK -

but every mining company could do better when it comes to

environmental sustainability.

These springs have been providing that incredible,

reliable source of fresh water to this environment

and to its people since before anyone can remember.

So, we started noticing a couple of things.

From time to time, actually seeing hydrocarbons being detected

within the spring waters themselves.

If it's linked to mining activity, then it's a red flag that,

you know, the spring water quality is imminently under threat.

We learned recently that Australia's peak science agency, the CSIRO,

was asked to have a look at the new modelling that had been done

by the mining company, as well as some of the monitoring data

that had been coming through.

That CSIRO review found that the model was not fit for the purpose

of properly predicting the impacts of the mine

on the Doongmabulla Springs.

In terms of the footprint of the mine, currently,

it's only about a fifth or a sixth of what's been fully approved

for the whole project here.

Any big upscale in the size and the footprint of the mine

means further impact on the groundwater system.

I'd say that's a real concern for risk to the springs.

They were promised by the state government

that their springs would be safe.

And Matthew Currell, in his report,

provides a very good evidential basis that the springs

currently are under a great threat from the mine.

The Human Rights Act, in Section 28, says that the right of our clients

to practise their culture and have their sacred places protected.

Those things, they can't be limited by colonial law.

So, that's a judicial review application with human rights

grounds in the Supreme Court of Queensland.

It will be a really important test case,

and a case that will be followed by other First Nations people

who are wanting to protect their culture and country.

So, this is basically a satellite map.

And we've been slowly going through and putting stuff in.

That's a significant artefact site.

When we're born, our parents would cut a tree open,

and they would put the placenta inside the tree,

and then they would close the tree back up,

and then that would be your tree your whole life.

That's the tree that you practise throwing spears at.

And when you die, this is the tree that they would

bury you in, basically.

And there's heaps of them around here.

It was a done thing from the beginning.

We got out of it what we could.

We were told that, at that meeting, it was just a process.

The government has the final say.

Take what's on offer.

I know it's like a cop out, but moneys that come from

those royalties helps to pay for our mob funeral.

We need to bury them, or pay for education opportunities.

It split families.

The infighting I see is unreal.

And the destruction of the land,

I feel terrible about that happening.

I feel terrible, but we're helpless.

We can't stop it.

Get out the car.

Get out of the car!

Do not interfere. Do not interfere.

He's coming here on my country.

And he's not even from here, he's from Townsville,

which is, like, five hours' drive away.

They set you up, brother.

They set you up. This is my tribal home.

You know I've been here for 551 days?

And then by the end of it he said, "Oh, sorry, brother, I didn't know."

Cos I said, "You're more than welcome to come in here

"any time you want. You just got to tell me."

And then they left,

and then they put a common assault charge on me.

I'm sorry that I might have been a bit, like, loud or something.

But I'm not sorry for anything else,

because they trespassed into my home.

Our commitment to the resources sector is ironclad.

We know how important mining is to Queensland.

It is the largest industry in the state,

contributing $86 billion to the Queensland economy.

I've signed 30 new mining leases since we came to government,

and I'm only just getting started.

This definitely seems like the epitome of

a David and Goliath fight...

...when it really comes down to a hard-headed family

that just refuses to accept defeat.

I don't plan on leaving any time soon.

This is a part of me, this place.

Thanks for joining me from here in Australia.

Now, we want your feedback on Global Eye, we'd love to hear what

you think on social media, so use the hashtag...

We'll be back next week.

So, until then, goodbye.