Woman's Hour

Harriet Wistrich is a human rights lawyer and founder and director of the Centre for Women's Justice. Her cases are consistently in the news – the fight to keep the so-called ‘black cab rapist’, John Worboys in prison and the release of Sally Challen, who had been imprisoned for the murder of her abusive husband. As part of our Takeover week Harriet discusses surviving a disabled sibling, her admiration for Claudia Clare a ‘subversive ceramicist’, the treatment of women accused of lying about a rape allegation, and why Zem Zem Mohammed, an Eritrean refugee, is someone she holds in great esteem.She may not be a household name but we know her cases well. How does a feminist lawyer relax who works tirelessly for the good of women she believes are being mistreated by the criminal justice system? And what compels her to continue to seek justice? When Harriet Wistrich was just eleven years old her disabled brother, Matthew, died. It was the 1960’s and a time when disabled people were institutionalised, shut away an