The Fifth Floor

Supporting Content

• Seagulls and happiness in Riga

  Meet Agamemnon, the neighbourly seagull

  Duration: 7:54

• Why a 'beach towel movement' is growing in Turkey

  Some businesses are making it harder for locals to use beaches by charging entrance fees

  Duration: 6:15

• Afghan women fight for education

  Women protest against Taliban university ban

  Duration: 8:51

• Watermelons and Ukrainian resistance

  Why have watermelons become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance?

  Duration: 3:15
  See all clips

• Gallery: On the world's highest battlefield.

• Meet the presenter: Faranak Amidi

  Faranak Amidi presents The Fifth Floor, a weekly programme that revels in the variety and range of stories produced by the BBC World Service's language sections.

  • Faranak joined the BBC Persian service in 2010
  • She was born in L.A and grew up in Tehran
  • Before getting into journalism she was a kickboxing trainer, an English teacher and even an ice-cream maker in Tehran
  • She is now a woman’s affairs journalist for World Service
  • When not reporting on women’s issues in Iran and Afghanistan, she likes to cook and find new music from acid house to dub