Woman's Hour - Sex offenders and ID change, IVF Investigation, A History of Bandanas

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

The revelation that a paedophile had changed his name more than 20 times to hide his past has renewed pressure on the government to change the law. Jason Brown was first convicted 12 years ago and has now pleaded guilty to a further offence. There's been campaigning for many years for it to be illegal for sex offenders to change their name, as many use their new identities to avoid being monitored. Nuala McGovern speaks to Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham and one of those calling for this legal change. Millions of Filipinos work overseas to help raise money for their families back home. And of these millions more than half are women. Here in the UK tens of thousands of Filipinos work in the NHS, they are one of the most common non-UK nationalities for nurses and health visitors in our health system. But what is life like for those who are left behind? Poet and nurse Romalyn Ante’s debut novel, the Left Behind Child, explores the teenage years of Neneng, who is eleven when her mother, Rosa, leaves to work as a nurse abroad. Romalyn tells Nuala McGovern how her true story of being a ‘left behind child’ influenced her writing. The parents of 30 children have told the BBC they fear they were given the wrong sperm or egg donors, during IVF treatments, in northern Cyprus. Fertility clinics in the Turkish-occupied territory are loosely regulated and are popular with British people who need medical help to have a baby. A small team of journalists first exposed this IVF scandal earlier this year - which led to many more people coming forwards. The BBC has now found the majority of cases are linked to one clinic and a small group of staff. Nuala hears from one of those families, a woman called Rachel, who was given the wrong sperm donor. She is joined by Investigative Journalist Anna Collinson and fertility lawyer, Natalie Gamble. From Dua Lipa to Zendaya, the bandana is the 90's accessory that's making a come back. In the heatwaves it has proved practical as well as stylish. But the simple square or triangle of fabric with the paisley design has a history with a range of meanings and cultural references, from workwear and protest movements to fashion and self-expression. Amber Butchart, Fashion & textile historian, and the author and broadcaster Emma Dabiri discuss the history behind the comeback. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Helen Fitzhenry

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Your sales order says one thing. Your inventory says another. Your spreadsheet says, good luck. Odu brings your business together on a single platform, from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. Visit Odo.com to book a demo. It's O'Dbolo.com. Hello, this is Newellamoghren, and you're listening to The Woman's Hour podcast. Hello and welcome to the programme. Well, in a moment, the investigation into an IVF clinic in northern Cyprus

where there are fears, the wrong sperm or egg donors were used to conceive children. Also today, Romulan Ante, will be here. Her debut novel, The Left Behind Child, tells the story of a Filipino mother who works abroad as a nurse to support her family and about the girl who is left behind. She writes beautifully about the emotional turmoil that creates. Romano calls it a story of every child and parent separated by distance and time,

one that she also experienced. And that might also be a story that resonates with you. Were you the person who left to work or were you a person who is left behind? I'd love to hear from you on this, how it affected you at the time and also now. You can text the program. The number is 84844 on social media

or at BBC Woman's Hour or you can email us through our website For a WhatsApp message or a voice note, that number is 0-3700-100-400-44. And on most smart speakers, you can say Alexa, ask BBC sounds to send a comment. And bandanas, that 90s hair accessory is back. It was also quite popular in the 1890s. We'll talk about its history and significance. Plus, should registered sex offenders be banned from changing their name?

That conversation also. coming up this hour. But let me begin with the story that I mentioned at the top. You also heard it on the news bulletin. The parents of 30 children have told the BBC they fear they were given the wrong sperm or egg donors during IVF treatments in northern Cyprus. Fertility clinics in the Turkish occupied territory are loosely regulated and are popular with British people who need medical help to have a baby. A small team of

journalists first exposed this IVF scandal earlier this year. You might remember that. And that led to many more people coming forward. The BBC has now found the majority of cases are linked to one clinic and one small group of staff. In a moment, we're going to hear from one of those families, a woman called Rachel, whose son is now 13 years old and who is given the wrong sperm donor. And we'll also be talking to the fertility lawyer, Natalie Gamble. But joining me first here in the Women's Hour studio is investigative journalist Anna Collinson, who's been working on this story for more than a year now. You're very welcome, Anna.

Thank you so much for having me. Now, for those who don't know, can you start by explaining why people are travelling to northern in Cyprus for IVF treatment? Well, yeah, thank you. So as some of your listeners will know all too well, if you need IVF to have a baby in the UK, waiting lists on the NHS can be very long and private fertility treatment can be very expensive. So more and more people are travelling abroad, and one of the most popular destinations has become Northern Cyprus.

Clinics there, we've seen promise high success rates at low prices, as well as well as. well as controversial treatments, which are not allowed in this country, such as sex selection. They also crucially offer a wide range of egg and sperm donors, which can be needed for some patients, such as those with specific fertility issues or same-sex couples. And in some family's eyes, Northern Cyprus, they wouldn't have a baby without the treatment that's available there. But there is another side to it. Northern Cyprus is only legally recognised by Turkey and does not adhere to EU laws. It also doesn't have an independent fertility regulator

which monitors clinics. And we've found that when things go wrong, patients are often dismissed or even ignored. So when this story first came out, it was in March, and you revealed that a small group of parents believed they've been given the wrong sperm or egg donors during their IVF treatment in northern Cyprus. What has happened since then?

Yeah, so many more people came forward after that story and we're seeing a similar pattern this morning actually. We've now spoken to the parents of 30 children who fear they were given the wrong sperm or egg donors. And we've seen a pattern emerge. Clinics would typically offer the parents screened, healthy donors. They would say they were from Western Europe. These donors would be anonymous, but the parents could carefully consider their medical history, their appearance, personality, education, hobbies, and then make a choice, an informed choice based on that, which they would then pay.

for. But when their children were born, they became suspicious that something wasn't quite right. 11 of the 30 children have now taken commercial DNA tests, which show they have inherited genetic ancestry from Turkey or surrounding countries, so not Western Europe, suggesting their parents requested donors were not used. Now, all of these parents love their children, regardless of who their donors were. That's not what this story is about. The issue is about dishonesty. Charities believe donor-conceived children have. a fundamental right to know the truth about where they come from. Their medical history, whether they have other unknown biological siblings, and if so,

how many. But these families have likely been robbed of ever knowing that important information. Fertility experts say the numbers potentially affected by this rules out the possibility of human error. They suspect it's down to negligence or even deception. Now, one of the parents who got in touch with you is Rachel, whose son is now 13. Rachel joins us on the line to Women's Hour. You're very welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So a little of your backstory, Rachel, is that you decided you wanted to have a child on your own in 2012. You would have your treatment at a clinic in Northern Cyprus.

You would use your own eggs with a sperm donor to fertilise them. What did you know about your sperm donor and where did the donor come from? I chose to have what was called at the time a non-anonymous sperm donor. from Cryos International Spern Bank in Denmark. And because they were non-anonymous, that meant that they were willing to be contacted at any point in the future, once a child had turned 18,

should that child want to contact them? And that was quite important to me to be able to give any child that I might have the option to do that, not because I necessarily wanted them to contact the donor, but just to give them the choice and that option. So that's why I specifically chose the clinic that I chose and why I specifically chose Trios International Sperm Bank because they offered those kind of donors at the time.

And the sperm donor, I understand, was called Ditto. What did you, where did you think your donor came from? He was Danish. The sperm bank was in Denmark. and that was as much as I knew really about his ethnic background. And I suppose that ID release donor is the way as he's called, like non-anonymous, so that your son would then have the ability to contact in the future. So you did go on, as I mentioned, to have this baby boy called Jonah.

I did. And when did you come suspicious, though, that the donor you'd asked for had not been used? Really early on, actually, when I was about four months pregnant, I thought I'd get everything in order. And so I spoke to Krayos International Sperm Bank and asked them what documentation my son would need, well, child, I didn't know who was the son at that point,

what he would need in the future should you decide to contact them to get identifying information about the sperm donor. I was told by Krios that really all we needed was a medical report from the clinic, including the information that they had about Donut, which was just his nickname at that point, Ditto. So I emailed Doge Clinic, asked for that treatment report, and basically they wouldn't

include Ditto in that report. What were you thinking at that stage? So I thought they'd maybe just made an error. You know, I thought this is odd. And I sort of pushed it a little bit and didn't get anything back from them. They, you know, responded a few times with, oh, for legal reasons, we can't. and I'd be saying, well, there's no legal reasons around this. I just want the treatment report with the facts in there.

Anyway, they eventually stopped responding to my emails. So I was thinking at that time that it was just an error. And that is terrible in and of itself. But it was an error that occurred to me and human error happens. You know, somebody had messed up or there'd been an administrative problem. somewhere. And with me asking them for that treatment report, I thought that I'd highlighted it to them. And that's why they couldn't give me the information that I was requesting. And of course, then you have a baby on the way, you're busy and, you know, life takes over.

But how did you, and also Jonah, of course, who is a teenager now, feel when you saw the BBC report, Anna's report in March? So I'd always had this suspicion. I'd even joked about it in early days, you know, Jonah, I mean, Jonah looks very Turkish. He's got dark hair and beautiful brown eyes and olive skin. And so I'd always suspected it. So I'd had 13 years at this point to kind of process that information. And what that meant was that I, Jonah was always known that is being conceived using donor sperm. He's always known that and he's proud of that. But then when we read that article, it felt strangely validating in a way because I'd always suspected that. But then, of course, there's the shock of thinking, oh, my goodness, this isn't justice.

It doesn't appear to be just a single error with a single case. This is something much bigger. And that's really shocking, actually. Yeah, a lot to process. Now, I know you and Jonah decided he would do a DNA test. The result suggested that the nicknamed donor ditto was not Jonah's donor. That must have been quite a day, though, to have it so specific in black and white. Yes.

I think we're quite lucky in that Jonah has been quite fascinated by it. He's got a very curious mind. He's very interested in everything in the world. And he's also got quite a unique perspective. on things, I think. And so he's been really fascinated by it and unfazed by it. And he's kind of, you know, taken on the fact that he's, it's about, I don't know the exact, because he would be able to tell you, but 20 something percent Turkish, a similar amount, South Italian, a similar amount Greek. So there, they form most of his sort of heritage, if you like. And so really luckily for us, he's been

unfazed by it and being more curious about it than anything. But of course, at this point, the fact remains that he is unable to ever find out any more information or make contact with the donor should he choose to in the future. And I say I call ourselves lucky because I know that not all children would feel the same way. And I don't, I don't want to sound like I'm dismissive of or negating anybody else's feelings that might feel differently because I can fully understand how some children could be really badly affected by this, really negatively impacted by it. And that's why I consider ourselves quite lucky. But of course, I've no idea what Jonah might feel in the future. He's coming into his teen years. He's teens and identity

is a big deal. And who knows what might happen. But you are having that conversation right now in a very open way. Anna and her team, as you will know, discovered that while you were working, while working with you, that cryos, that sperm bank that you mentioned, that you thought you were ordering your donor from has no record of ever delivering sperm donors to the clinic. You mentioned Dodge, which is also in Anna's piece. How did you feel when you found that specific fact out? Yeah, I am, I'm not often speechless, but I've found myself a few times when Anna's divulged something to me, that being one of them where I'm just, I just can't, I just can't fathom it. You know, it is so baffling to me that this could happen or that somebody would do

this when, you know, the main reason I chose the clinic and others would have chosen the clinic was because it was explicitly stated that they would order sperm from Cryos International Sperm Bank. And they even included a link in the emails and, you know, and that's what me and other prospective parents would have done would have followed that link and found a suitable sperm. And it's just, it's unfathomable to me. It's just, it's outrageous really that this kind of thing could even happen. Yeah, it's so, I suppose, difficult to take in because you've got this wonderful boy that you wouldn't have had otherwise, perhaps. But it's talking about, as Anna very much underlined, the dishonesty that has been part of this story and not about the love that you have for your child.

Absolutely. I want to bring in Natalie Gamble here, a fertility lawyer with N. NGA law, which looks at fertility issues. Good to have you with us, Natalie. You've been listening to the extraordinary story that Anna uncovered and that Rachel has been living through. What do you make of the scale that we're hearing about? I mean, I've been following it since March when the story first broke.

It really is just absolutely shocking. I think all the years I've done this, I've not seen a story like this. And I think at the heart of it, what's really shocking is the lack of care and concern that's shown by these medical professionals in northern Cyprus. for the welfare of the children that they're helping to conceive. But, you know, donors are not just interchangeable kind of human selves. They become part of every donor-conceived person's identity and their life story. And that information is really, really important.

So to be involved in fertility treatment and not understand that, not have regard for that, that's, I think, what's really, really shocking. Some of the families have told Anna and her team that they've tried to pursue legal action, but they've reached dead ends. how do you see that? Yeah, it's really tricky. I mean, if somebody were to approach me, I would have to say, well, as an English lawyer,

it's very difficult to give any help because these services were provided in northern Cyprus, so that really kind of UK law doesn't come into it. So I think it's really important. It's very difficult for the parents that are all kind of coming out in this scandal now that are affected to know what weakles they have. But I think the wider issue,

and it's really good that this is kind of messages going out to other people to alert them to these issues because I think it could be very easy for parents when, you know, if you need fertility treatment and you're looking at the different options and you're looking at kind of glossy websites and things online to kind of miss the fact that the people who are offering services overseas are not operating in the same legal and regulatory framework as exists in the UK. But I think, you know, understanding being a little bit, you know, wiser to the different environments that exist is really, really important for people with a contemplating treatment.

And particularly that there is not the regulatory body like the HFEA that there is here in the UK that we speak too often. Anna, let me come back to you. Rachel was a patient at an IVF clinic in Northern Cyprus that we mentioned that you have been investigating. What have you found? Yeah, so out of the 30 cases that we were talking about, 15 children's parents had treatment at Doge IVF Centre and their cases have been linked to a small group of staff. Firstly, there's Dr. Sevkett Alpert. He owns Doge Clinic.

and his responsibilities include signing off all procedures and activities, but he's not responded to any of our questions despite multiple attempts. Secondly, there's Rachel's doctor, Dr. Ferdev's Ugas Tip, who treated nine of the 15 cases at Doge that we've looked into. We've seen multiple emails where patients were told that Dr. Ferdevs would arrange the sperm orders from Cryos, the world's largest sperm bank that we were talking about just a bit earlier. But Dr. Ferdev's denies this was her job and says she didn't know patients, were being told that it was.

That then leads us to our third and final member of staff, a Scottish woman called Julie Hodson, who was the main contact for British patients at Doge Clinic. She was the one who told patients that Dr. Furdevs would arrange their sperm orders. She also refused to supply Rachel with a medical form, which confirmed ditto sperm had been used in her IVF procedure. We've asked Hodson whether she deliberately failed to place orders

with the sperm bank or did not pass patient requests onto Doge staff, but she too has not responded. It's left patients questioning whether any of these people could be responsible for them being given the wrong donors and they're hoping this investigation may bring some answers to that.

The Northern Cypriot government launched an investigation after your story first made front page news in Cyprus. Any update from them? Silence from them as well. The Ministry of Health for Northern Cyprus

is yet to release its findings and has not responded to any of our request for information. Someone who has taken action is the sperm bank cryos. it confirmed it blacklisted Doge Clinic actually way back in 2016 and is now suspended working with third devs and her current clinic, Miracle IVF, until the government investigation concludes. The British Fertility Society is advising patients not to travel to northern Cyprus

for fertility treatments until the findings are released, while the UK's Foreign Office recently updated its guidance to say patients should thoroughly research clinics before travelling there. The families we've spoken to so far still have so many unanswered questions. It's also likely there are going to be many more people affected. So we are going to keep investigating. But there's a strong chance we may never know exactly who is to blame in all this. Yeah.

And I was thinking about this this morning. I mean, I know DNA comes on in leaps and bounds. We don't know what the coming years will bring, for example, if a relative of any of these actual sperm donors comes forward. But, Bani, it's very important to have a biological link for example, with other potentially donor siblings or indeed siblings that could be elsewhere in the world. Anna Collinson, really interesting.

I think you might be back with us again in the coming months. Thanks for joining us. We also heard from Rachel a little earlier. Thanks to her for her candid discussion and fertility lawyer Natalie Gamble. Anna's documentary, Sunshine and Secrets. The Hidden Side of IVF is available to view an BBC eye player, which is a previous investigation.

And if you think you have been affected, you can contact Anna and her team by emailing fertility investigation at BBC.co.com. again, that's fertility investigation at BBC.com.com. Now, to a book about those who leave to work and those who are left behind. The poet and nurse, Romulan Ante's debut novel, The Left Behind Child, explores the teenagers of a name who is 11 and living in the Philippines when her mother Rosa leaves to work as a nurse abroad, first in Oman, and then in the UK, in the NHS.

It's a familiar story for many Filipinos who work overseas to support their families back home that can often include their children that are still there. Filipinos make up the largest Southeast Asian diaspora in the UK and thousands, as you may know, are working in the NHS right now. Romulan, welcome to Women's Hour.

Thank you so much, Nula. Good morning. Good to have you with us. So this book, I understand, was inspired by your own background. What was it like to write about the left behind child through the eyes of a young girl? Well, I've always written themes about the mother and daughter relationship, migration, and what healing means. I've always done that through poetry. When I wrote the left behind child as a prose, I really wanted to expand this story. And not to give voice to all the left behind children, because,

there are so many, there are millions of them and in different parts of the world, but to give voice to the story that I know to the story of Neneng because I have lived it. And I really want to show what are the pressure and pain that a left behind child must overcome as well as the mother who left.

And it comes across so beautifully. In this novel, Rosa, the mother, is sometimes shamed about her decision to work abroad. But at the same time, it's prestigious to have this position as a nurse. Do you think Filipino mothers face more judgment than fathers for the decision to go overseas?

Well, I can only speak based on my own experiences. In the Philippines, mother is a very important figure. We have a saying that goes, The mother is the light of the home. So when she leaves, the home sinks into darkness almost. And as we know, I think it's not just in the Philippines, but in any other culture, motherhood means nurturing and taking care of the home and taking care of the children. So I think there is a certain judgment when they leave.

And there is also a certain kind of honoring because at the end of the day, when a woman leaves, it also proves how much they are willing to sacrifice for their first. family. So it's a very complicated topic and it's a very complicated theme. Which is a couple of questions from your book that stayed with me in reference to what you've just said. One, how much could you do for love and how much destruction could that bring? Yes, definitely. Definitely. The love of a mother to her family, I think, is endless. I am a mother now. I have a three-year-old and I used to work full-time in the NHS. And recently, I actually left my full-time job for my child.

And I couldn't imagine what are the reasons my mother explored during her younger years, why she had to leave us behind. You know, when I was growing up, I was always thinking, why did you have to take care of other people abroad and then not take care of us, your own family here? But only now that I'm a mother, I really begin to understand what can we do for love? And also what does love mean for us?

And not only for us as a person, but for our family, for our society, because we are bound by these different factors in our lives. We are not just one person. I suppose really what's at the heart of it is sacrifice, right? So she is sacrificing being with her children, for example, to try and give them a better life in the future. And it's so interesting when you talk about the role of the mother in the home,

you could almost be talking about a nurse as well in the sense of caring, nurturing. At the start of your novel, Nenging, Nenging, because I read it, of course, and don't say it, vows to never become a nurse. Did you feel the same growing up because you did become a nurse?

Yes, I did. I did eventually migrated and become a nurse in the NHS. In the Filipino culture, when I was growing up, I'm not sure if it's the same now, but when I was growing up, If you are a girl, you must be a nurse so you can go abroad and save our families from our debt or from whatever. If you're a man, you must be a seafarer so that you can go abroad and, again, earn dollars and give us some money. So there's always almost a thought that's planted in you that being a nurse make you important because I can help my family.

And I can help my country through remittances. But that means that you are also not encouraged to explore what you really want to be. And that sort of problem is also explored within the book. Because Nening, in her heart she wanted to help. But also, she's a poet. She's a very imaginative kind of girl. So there's also that thorn and that opposites between. What does caring means?

Can we care through healing or can we care through writing? And can we care through absence? Perhaps as well. Some messages came in that you might be interested in. My parents are doctors and worked long hours throughout mine and my brother's childhoods. My grandma moved in with us when I was born and lived with us for 20 years to help raise us. She would take us to school, clothe us, feed us and take us to all our activities and most importantly care and love us. I felt no animosity at all to my parents for working so much and being absent.

And I'm extremely grateful for being able to have such a great relationship with my grandma and getting to know her so well. But for a teenage girl that you talk about, she's missing her mother so much. Her relationship to her mother transforms. And at times her mother seems like a stranger. Did you ever feel that? Yes, of course. Growing up, I have always admired and honored my mother.

But of course, she also left in the moments when I was becoming a teenager, you know, and teenage years are when really big moments in life comes through your high school, when you had your period, when you have your first crushes. So you had nobody really to turn to, to talk about these things. And that's one of the themes that's explored in the book. There's a sort of honoring, but also there's a sort of. hating. Yes, because you kind of have to take her role. I mean, I wrote down maternal sister is what I think Neng is in this book and maybe it's something you ought to do. There is really a theme of women or girls having to do the majority of the work within the home. There's also the anger of why do women give so much? Which I think you

explore so beautifully. It's all done as well. I should let people know with like the myths that there are in the Philippines, the colonial history is there, the politics woven in, Tagalog, the language, yet we understand exactly what you are trying to get across. How difficult was it to weave all those various aspects of Filipino culture into your writing? Well, I have been weaving those aspects in my poetry and I'm very thankful because I think my poetry trained me into writing this book, but also this book was first written as a series of creative nonfiction and reflections and essays before it become an actual novel. I work with my editor for one and half years, so I had a massive support. I think when I'm writing, I always go for what I want

to say intuitively first, so I'll always draft whatever it is that comes to my mind. And then the crafting, the editing comes later on. But why not autobiography instead of fiction? That's a very good question, Yula. I think when I was writing it as a series of essays and reflections, I felt like there's something missing. Like I couldn't push true. There's something that I can't just say.

And I think it's because creative nonfiction makes me very vulnerable. Yeah, it's factual. It's open. Whereas in fiction, I'm. I could create more things. I could use my imaginative energy. I could expand the stories. And of course, I don't need to bear myself.

This is really about my experiences, but I don't feel as bold as when I'm writing CNN. Lots of messages coming in as people listen to you, Rosalind. I want to contribute to the discussion about left behind children to include left behind adult children. My son's father moved abroad. when my sons were 18 and 21 and it has had a profound impact on them.

Another, I was sent to an open air school when I was six and separated from my family for nearly two years apart from very short breaks. I'm now 70 and after years of therapy and working as a psychotherapist, it continues to haunt me and each day I discover new parts of me and who I am that are still impacted.

Until very recently, I had a core belief that I had been abandoned. Somehow I at last was able to believe that I hadn't been and this had to happen as I was so poorly. I felt such euphoria for weeks, a feeling I've never felt before or since. That's Jane.

Thank you, Jane, for sharing that. You know, so this is, you're tapping into something that people have felt in different parts of the world for different reasons. In the book, you feature mixed media, might be how I explain it, about Rosa the mother, her paychecks, her work appraisal notes or recipes that gives us insight into the immigrant experience.

For example, to give people one. idea of it. How not to get lost in translation. And there's like a list of what Rosa has put as a nurse in the NHS. Never leave the ward looking for the vegetable when the patient asks for squash. And it reminded me so much of my father as an immigrant. I think he went to New York. He was working in a supermarket for the first time. He'd come from rural Ireland and he was stacking shelves. And somebody said, can you get some pineapples? But he didn't have a clue what a pineapple was. So he saw the list. He found one pineapple and he says he brought it down to the stock room and just kept looking until he found a box of the same fruit. And reading about Rosa, that really reminded me of him. And it's such a universal experience for the immigrant that you're in a world lost in translation.

Yes, definitely. Definitely. I purposely chose mixed media because I wanted to get into Nending Psychology. And me as a child growing up, I could only see glimpses of my mother through the letters that she sent, the list in the Balik Bayan boxes. And even now, whenever she work away, I would only see her as tax letters, you know, her pay slips. So I really wanted to get into that psychology of a child who can only view her mother from a distance. The mother as an ATM was an image that's definitely. date of me. Here's one before I let you go. Because you talk about the boxes and parcels being sent of goods and gifts. My mother left Jamaica in 1971 for England to work in a hospital in the southeast. She left me, my elder and younger sister, with her mother, my grandmother. I was six. Mom wrote to us often and sent us parcels of clothing and food to support us. I never felt abandoned or worried, but that resonates with your experience. Definitely. Definitely. In this little material things that are

sent to us, we can still see and feel how the love that our parents want to give us. Thank you for sharing that. Romulan Ante's debut novel is The Beautiful, The Left Behind Child, a gorgeous read. Thank you so much for coming in and sharing some of your story with us. Thank you so much, Nula. Thank you. Your sales order says one thing. Your inventory says another. Your spreadsheet says, good luck. Odu brings your business together on a single place.

platform, from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. Visit Odo.com to book a demo. It's O'DO.O.com. 844, if you'd like to get in touch with us, that's just one of the ways as I take your comments this morning on Women's Hour. Now, I want to turn to the revelation that a paedophile had changed his name more than 20 times to hide his past. This has renewed pressure on the government to change the law. Jason Brown was first convicted 12 years ago. He has now pleaded guilty to a further offence. There has been campaigning for many years

for it to be illegal for sex offenders to change their name as many can use their new identities to avoid being monitored. The Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, has been calling for this legal change and joins me now. Good to have you with us. The latest case highlights the problem, but can you tell me a little bit more about why you've been campaigning for this for so long?

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for covering me. because to be quite honest, most people don't know about it and they really need to. So I first got involved because a journalist got in touch with me and wanted my thoughts on it. And I actually thought that he was making it up. And then I did my research and I met the amazing survivor and campaign Adela Wright and the Safeguarding Alliance and discovered that it's really easy for particularly registered sex offenders, but anybody to change their name. What that does. does is for a registered sex offender change in their name is the schemes that have been put in place

to protect women and girls. And I'm thinking about Claire's law and Sarah's law where you can call up and find out if your new partner's name is on that list becomes automatically invalid. The other thing which does really concern me is once you've changed your name, you can then get a new passport, you can get a new driving licence and that enables you to get a clean DBS check in your new name. So we're so reliant on these name-based forms to give us the security that we can employ someone, we can fall in love with someone, we can leave a child in their care. And actually, there's a massive great loophole, which means that anybody can change their name within minutes. So a couple of things, the DBS check is a background check that enables you to work, for example,

with children or in other settings where these checks take place. Just how easy is it to change your name? How long? How much? I tried this morning. It's actually, so I didn't go through to the paying. So online, you can get them for 15 pounds and it took me about a minute and a half. So all they asked for is an address to send the form to and it's done within 24 hours. But actually, you don't need to pay anything. If you go onto the government's website, you can just write a letter and they give you a template of how to do it and that's free. So are you calling for registered sex offenders to not have the ability to change their name? What is it exactly that you're looking for? So what I want is safeguards in place. And so the schemes that are meant to protect us are actually

valid because what I've found through my research over the years is a vast number of registered sex offenders. That's what I've focused on go missing in the system. So the data I got from government between 2019 and 2022, 1150 registered sex offenders were probably. prosecuted for failing to give the information that they were meant to. So that could be changing their name or that could be changing their address and not notifying the authorities. Now, they're the ones that got caught. The ones that worry me are the ones that come back into the system.

And there's some pretty high profile ones. So Ian Hunter, who murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Amy in the Soho murders, Colin Pitchfork, a child murderer, John Warboys, the taxicab murderer. All of these changed their names on multiple accounts. occasions. So my fear is that this is happening on a big scale. So if you're a registered sex offender, if you're on the registered sex offenders list, I don't think you should be able to change your name. Currently, it's also, you need to notify if you're a violent offender or a terrorist. I want to go further than that. I just don't think that that liberty

should be granted to you if you're a risk to another person. And I believe Ian Huntley is the name, I think, that you wanted to mention there as well. Thank you. There was a change to the law with the new crime and policing act. I just want to get into some of these specifics, which came in this year. So prior to the new law, sex offenders had to notify police of change of law within three days of doing it. Now it's been moved to seven days in advance so police could then block it if they so wished. Why isn't that enough? Well, it's great.

And going on the government's website, they've now put that literally in black and white. but it still relies on the sex offender to do the right thing. To be quite honest, as the data shows, a lot of them are not doing the right thing. So whether they're meant to inform after they've changed their name or before they've changed their name, the data shows that they're just not doing that. So relying on these people who have criminal records to suddenly be upstanding when it comes to a loophole that enables them to disappear and avoid detection, I just don't think that's going to happen. What we need to be doing is putting automatic vetting in place.

So when you try to apply, it needs to cross-reference if you're on one of these registration lists and then block you from making that change. I mean, some talk about a reluctance to implement change like you were describing because it could curtail everyone's freedom to change their name. Well, absolutely. And ministers over the years have put that point to me, and I do understand it. And for example, if you're in an abusive relationship, and you want to disappear by getting a new name and a new identity,

I completely understand that. But I think what we need to do as a society is weigh up all of our rights. So if, for example, one of the conditions is that you have to give two pieces of identity when you're changing your name so that you can be cross-reference that you're not on one of these lists, I think that that infringement of all of our civil liberties is something worth taking. because, let's be honest, domestic abusers, rapists, child abusers, they are very likely to reoffend. And this is a loophole that enables them to do that.

But this is not a new issue. This is something you've been campaigning on for some time. You've obviously suggested it to ministers in the past. Why do you think it hasn't happened? It's one of those things that's in the too difficult draw. So I've been campaigning for five years, but Della Wright and the Safeguarding Alliance, I think it's nearly 10 for them.

because it's such an obvious failing. The problem is it crosses between departments, so justice has got a role in it, the home office has got a role in it, transport because it's driving licenses have got a role in it, and trying to get government departments to work together is really, really achingly tough. It's also something that successive governments

have claimed complete victory, that they've sorted it out, and then they don't. So it's also, you're asking again survivors to come forward and fight and campaign and try and get a change and it's exhausting. I feel exhausted about it

but it's something that it's why I'm really glad you're covering it. It needs to be resolved. But there is a couple of issues of course that are in the news at the moment, the early release scheme. For example, it's probably one of the challenges that the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham is going to have to tackle in short order. I will come to what number 10 has said about this

specifically. But we know for example, the workload pressure that probation officers are under right now to monitor offenders, including sex offenders post release. And I'm just wondering, are you thinking about that as you talk about the proposal as well of whether all this can be done? A hundred percent. By chance, our deputy mayor for South Yorkshire used to be the lead probation worker for London. And I was with her yesterday and her specialism was registered sex offenders. And she, Well, both of us grieved because we did have a world-class probation service

and then the Conservative government privatised it and it's been trying to rebuild itself ever since. Their workload is off the charts. Their vacancy rate is far too high. The pressure on these people to manage some very, very dangerous conniving people is unacceptable. So what we need to do is work with them to try and find something that's robust. What we should be focusing on is prevention, is early intervention. and much, much, much more rehabilitation in prison.

Because once somebody is out of the prison system, our ability to monitor them becomes very, very slender, particularly if they're gaming the system by changing their names. And of course there would be some that agreed with the privatisation and would disagree with your interpretation of it. But let me come to number 10, the current number 10. They say they're looking at changing the law. Does that reassure you?

It gives me reassurance, but I've been excited and believed people before. I mean, this is my team, so I really, really want to believe them. But until I actually see it in black and white, and until I am assured that these convicted sex offenders particularly are not exploiting the law and finding ways to access vulnerable people, I'm not going to stop campaigning on this. Then there's a broader philosophical issue. Some might say there's a danger that this would affect the rehabilitation of offenders. There are some that would say that criminals, even registered sex offenders,

should be allowed to move on from their crimes and start again. And this is where I've had to really sit down and think through the process. I think that there are, and again, talking about, to this very senior probation worker yesterday, there are some crimes where you are unable to change the behaviour to such an extent that you feel able that that person is no longer a risk to society. There are categories of sex offenders who you are able to work through a supportive rehabilitation program and they are able to move on. So what I would say is because there is also a group who will never stop being a threat to society.

If you are a registered sex offender, while you're on the list, then absolutely you shouldn't be able to change your name. Once that restriction is removed, then you ought to apply to your probation officer, to a judge, to the police, who can then make a proper assessment if they genuinely feel that you're no longer a threat to society. But I also think, what about the rights of the women? What about the rights of the mothers,

trying to get some sort of reassurance, they need to know that Claire's law, that Sarah's law works. And then they should be able to have an open conversation with their new partner. If they have changed, then having that conversation shouldn't be an issue for them. If they haven't, then, yes, I can see why they might be extremely challenged by that. It's a difficult one. But unfortunately, my support and I think a human rights perspective is we need to protect people. That should be our first priority. Labor MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, thanks so much for coming on the programme this morning. From the Home Office, a spokesperson said those who seek to conceal their identity, evade monitoring or breach the restrictions imposed on them can expect to face the full force of the law.

Now, Team GB's Golden Girl, Quadruple Gold Medalist, Amy Hunt joined me on Woman's Hour yesterday. She has become the first athlete in the 92-year history of the European Championships to win four goals in a single championship. in a single week, taking home medals in the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the women's 4 by 100 relay and the mixed 4 by 100 relay races all in Birmingham. She told me how it felt to achieve her dream at the competition and why doing her hair, nails and makeup helped her feel competition ready before the races. And she shared why she was determined to prove that you can be an academic badass and a track goddess.

She studied English at Cambridge University. Let's listen. You really can be smart. and be fast and be smart and be strong and be strong and be feminine as well. I think all of us out there, we looked gorgeous. Yes, you did. I was getting lost in the eyes of my teammates, but also so smart and so individually accomplished. But you know, you've talked about the glam, the jewelry you wear, the nails, your makeup

is beautiful as it was with your team. But you say that gives you kind of like the gladiator going into the ring, the confidence. A hundred percent. It's always like in a different vein getting ready for a night out. We might spend hours and hours kind of with the rollers in, kind of getting the face spray, doing an everything shower, and that's essentially the same thing, kind of wanting to feel at your best, and it's putting on that alter ego in a way, because I think I'm a very different person on the track, so it allows me to kind of step into that very confident persona,

and I don't think you can kind of doubt yourself when you have a cat eye on. You cannot doubt yourself when you have a cat eye on, so says Amy Hunt, you can listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds. It's Woman Hour episode from yesterday the 17th of August. A nice little digital clip up on our socials as well. I should say actually just with our last conversation that I was having with Sarah Champion, if you have been affected by any of the issues that we were discussing, there is links to help and support on the BBC Action Line Online. Now, let me turn to something you might be wearing on your head. From Dulaipa to Zendaya, The bandana is the 90s accessory

that is making a comeback. In the heat waves that we've had it has proved practical as well as stylish but that simple square or perhaps triangle of fabric with the Paisley design has a history with a range of meanings and cultural references which we're going to get into now

for the next 10 minutes. Joining me is Amber Bouchard fashion historian and Emmy Daburi, author and broadcaster. Great to have both of you with us. Amber, let me start with you. This was all news to me when I read about it. So tell us where the bandana originates from.

The bandana is a really global item that actually originates in the Indian subcontinent. The turn itself derives from a Sanskrit word that refers to a type of tie-dye. So this was effectively a way of creating really quite graphic shapes onto really bright coloured cloth. And at this time, textile techniques for dyeing, for creating especially, long-lasting bright colours were much more sophisticated across Asia, especially the Indians are continent than they were in Europe. So these became really, really, really desirable products as they were imported into Europe and into America from by companies like the East India Company, the English East India Company and the Dutch East India Company as well.

These companies became key players in colonial rule in these areas as well. So these are items that were really intimately involved in the kind of commercial flows of colonial commodities. And then what we see by the early 19th century is that Europe had the capacity to kind of mass manufacture of its own bandanas. As the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, these kind of handcrafts were industrialised and produced in Europe. And that paisley pattern has always been there from the start? Yeah, types of the paisley pattern have, for sure. shore. This is a pattern that has really, really ancient origins across areas like Persia and again, you know, the kind of Indian subcontinent, where it was known as the Mutah or the Boatah

pattern. And this was especially popular when it was woven into shawls in the kind of Kashmir region. These again became huge status symbols in really, really popular commodities back in Europe when they were imported into Europe and sold there. They were made by incredibly, incredibly skilled craft people and could take up to a year to produce on a handling. We see the same kind of process happening again with these particular shawls where industrialists in Europe, keen to kind of make a quick buck, would basically recreate these incredibly intricate hand-woven products in an industrialised process as the Industrial Revolution-Gathered Pace.

And this happened especially in towns like Norwich and especially in towns like Paisley in Scotland. And that's where we get the name for the Paisley pattern from. So there's a little background history, but of course we see it across different cultures, different parts of the globe. Emma, let me bring you in here. You've looked at how the bandana has often

being worn by black women. Tell me a little bit about its significance. Yeah, not necessarily just black women, but black people more generally. And if we think about people in popular culture that we associate with the bandana, well, who do you think of? In like kind of the late 90s, early, like kind of no-toes.

Well, there's the whole thing about the court case with Tupac at the moment, which is in it. You've got Rosie the Riveter, if I start going back to Industrial Revolution, Who are you thinking of? So in popular culture, it's pretty much unanimously black people, Tupac, would be a kind of obvious example. But it's a really interesting creation that is like a diasporic, a diasporic entity that comes from, I guess, the meeting of lots of different cultures, particularly like in the Caribbean. So when Africans were taken to the Caribbean as part of the transatlantic slave trade, they were obviously denied access to.

They were like strict of their traditional garments. There was a strong history of wearing, of covering your hair with head ties that we still have to this day in West Africa and across the continent. But in the Caribbean, people of African descent didn't have access to these traditional cloths and fabrics. but they did have access to, they were given these kind of cheap, mass-produced or coarse fabrics. One of these was the Indian bandana. And that was used in order to protect hair from, you know, the, like, heat, sun, dirt when they're working on plantations. But it also referenced this far more long-standing tradition in the African continent where headwraps were used to express, you know, marital status or wealth or had also had spiritual significance in a lot of

African cultures, the head and the hair are seen as having particular spiritual, spiritual value. And so covering your hair or having ornate hairstyles is important as well. So a lot of, so that kind of tradition of the bandana that we would associate with kind of hip hop and rappers in the late 90s and early 2000s, is part of that trajectory of black people covering their hair in that way. Yeah, it's so interesting, as they, when you see some of the political origins, perhaps, or political actions that took place

and some of the iterations of it, as you described there, Emma. It was, Amber, I understand, a political item. When it came to Martha Washington, the wife of George, she turned the bandana into a political garment? We do actually have a surviving bandana from the Revolutionary War in America, which shows George Washington on a horse. It has imagery that we would really clearly associate with kind of political messaging. He is circled by cannons and the words,

George Washington, founder and protector of America's liberty and independency. And it's actually thought that this could have been commissioned by Martha Washington, George Washington's wife, from a Philadelphia textile manufacturer. The design itself is interesting because it's very clearly inspired, again, by Indian techniques, things like chintz, like painted, pot and textiles. And really from that moment, we do also see, and Anna, becoming, you know, having the potential to become a kind of political, you know, very clearly, like I guess political with a capital P item. Creating images on cloth became quicker and easier than before as print technology developed. And it can become this way of kind

of displaying allegiance. And we see this then through other presidential elections throughout the 20th century as well, almost like a burden of, I guess, the MAGO cap today. Like that, which is, of course, the red baseball cap, which is proliferated under Donald Trump. But Emma, why do you think the bandana keeps coming back? And do you think people who are wearing it understand any of its history? I wouldn't imagine there's a great deal of kind of general knowledge about

the kind of development of headwraps and when people are wearing them today, they're probably largely ignorant of this history. The reason I think they keep coming back into style, well, fashion is just incredibly cyclical and always referencing things from the past, I think particularly in this moment, that's something that we see with like increasing regularity.

It's very, I think it's very unusual to see any trend these days that is something that is entirely new. But I think the kind of rich history of enslavement of indentured, of indentured labor, of all of these different cultural Indian, people of African descent, coming together in the Caribbean as a result of the colonial project, people of African descent, taking this garment that they were using in an oppressive situation, and through the use of kind of intricate knotting and tying, transforming these into kind of like symbols of pride and individuality, I don't think people are aware of that rich history when they're wearing a bandana today.

Here's one coming in from Michelle in Nottingham. She says Bandana. I've tried it, but sadly I just look like an aging Hell's Angel in lipstick. Well, what I read is that I was reading about Bandana articles this morning, that perhaps the bandana is on the way out and the puffy headband is on the way in. What's your reckon, Emma? Probably by tomorrow that will be the case because these things are happening to happen with like light food. Amber, thank you also very.

much for joining us on Woman's Hour. That is the bandana that is back in fashion, not just in the 1990s from the 1990s, but the 1890s as we've been hearing as well. Amber Bouchard is a fashion historian, Emma Daburi, author and broadcaster. Now, I want

to let you know, for tomorrow we will be discussing the case of a senior French civil servant who stands accused of drugging hundreds of women. But more than seven years after Christian Negre was formally charged, no trial date has been set. I've spoken to one of the women affected who says that the delays to justice has left

her feeling victimised for a second time. Also with us, J. Jones, who is a double Olympic champion in taekwondo, she's embarked on a new career in boxing. She's preparing for her third fight, and she joins me to explain how boxing has changed her perceptions of what she was physically capable of, and we'll hear from the woman behind the wildest club night in Ibiza during the 90s, going back to the 90s and early naughties. That's Claire, manumission. Join me then. That's all for today's woman's hour.

Join us again next time. Hello, I'm Greg Jenner. I'm the host of You're Dead to Me, the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. And we are back for a 12th series. Everyone in that film is wearing their own pants. We're joined by comedians like Kyle Smith Bino and Desiree Birch.

Can't see how this would go wrong. We'll meet many medieval saints. Motivational speaker saint. with like a sort of Madonna head mic on. We're doing a history of underwear. Plus there's loads more. You're dead to me. Listen on BBC Sounds.