Sunday, October 30, 2016

Weekend Edition: The week's best reads

"What if my mum sees this?" says Samir. "I would have thrown myself out the window from the shame." He is one of many victims of a scam in which "sextortionists" chat with men online, pretending to be women. When they say they are turning on their webcam, they actually play a video of a porn actress. At the same time they ask the victim to switch on his webcam - and use the video to blackmail him. Many of the scammers are from a small Moroccan town called Oued Zem.

The Skype sex scam - a fortune built on shame

"I asked one of my friends to record a video of me dancing on my mobile phone," writes Ghadeer Ahmed. "There was nothing pornographic about this video, but I was wearing a short dress that revealed my body. A few days later, I sent it to my boyfriend." They later broke up and, having been raised to believe that no man has the right to see a woman's body except her husband, Ghadeer began to fear the worst.

I refuse to be shamed for having a female body

What can the most common residential road name in Great Britain tell us about housing today? Here, George and Sophie from Station Road in Highbury, north London, look at whether they can afford to buy a one-bedroom flat on any other Station Road in the city.

VIDEO: When a couple earning £58,000 can't afford a flat

"I was 13 years old when the initiation ceremony happened... after my first period," writes Natasha Annie Tonthola. "We were told that we were going to learn about womanhood, and to be honest I was excited. So was every other girl. On the last day one of the female elders told us that we had reached the final part of the process. She said a hyena was coming to visit us. They don't tell you he's going to have sex with you."

Natasha Annie Tonthola: My fight against Malawi's 'hyenas'

The singer Joni Mitchell startled her friends by appearing at a Halloween party 40 years ago disguised as a black man in pimp-like garb. It would be unacceptable today but times were different then, her friends argue. Others disagree. Whichever view you take, her black alter ego was a reflection of her intense identification with black music, writes Kris Griffiths.

When Joni Mitchell wore blackface for Halloween

Not forgetting

How do you build a runway over a motorway?

Do six people die for every kilo of cocaine?

Will Central Asia fight over water?

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