The State We're In, 15 October 2011. A Tunisian escapes prison and runs 35 kilometres to be with his wife - who's about to give birth. A Cambodian cartoonist escapes two deadly regimes, and now he's making political cartoons read by thousands back home. And an Iranian woman escapes from a forced marriage and oppressive theocracy and finds new life as a comedian in Sweden.

---

Tweet

Subscribe to podcast feed  Subscribe in iTunes  Like us on Facebook  Follow us on Twitter 

---

Ain’t no mountain high enough

When Nizar Khemiri from Tunisia met Winny Methorst from the Netherlands for the first time, he knew she was the one.

They got married and Winny soon became pregnant. They wanted to have the baby in the Netherlands, but Nizar couldn’t get a travel visa.

So he decided to cross the Mediterranean on a smuggler boat. But he kept getting caught and put in detention camps, refugee camps, even prison.

Yet he escaped them all, and even ran 35 kilometres to be with his wife.

Nizar was determined to be at the birth of his son. He smuggled himself twice to Europe on a boat. Then he escaped three times from detention centres and prisons in Italy.

After Nizar’s last escape, Nizar and Winny finally make their way to the Netherlands, via Sicily. But on their way to the train station Nizar spots the police - looking for him...

Watch an interview with Winny and Nizar from Dutch TV program Nieuwsuur - Taking risks for love.
 
Winny is interviewed on Dutch talkshow Knevel van den Brink.

Dutch Foundation for Foreign Partners

---

No joke

Bun Heang Ung was a political cartoonist in Cambodia.

He still is, but now lives in Australia because the Cambodian regime threatened his life – this, after surviving the genocidal Khmer Rouge.

He tells host Jonathan Groubert why he’s never going to stop making cartoons.

View some of Bun's cartoons below.

See more of Bun Heang Ung's work at his website Sacrava Toons.

---

Tragedy is comedy

Zinat Pirzadeh has turned her life into a punchline. She’s experienced war, oppressive governments, forced marriage, hunger, death threats and more. But she’s now considered one of Sweden’s top female comedians. She tells Jonathan how an Iranian woman turned her tragic life into a stage-stealing show.

Zinat has just had her first novel, ‘Butterfly in Chains’ (Fjaril i Koppel), published. It’s about forced marriage in Iran. It’s in Swedish, but will be translated into English next year. Click for more information on the Swedish version.

---

Click image for slideshow - use arrows to scroll