‘Asharq Discovery’ Launches ‘Bassma’… Inspirational Journeys of Arab Women

Exceptional interviews with Arab women who lived inspirational experiences and hard challenges. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Exceptional interviews with Arab women who lived inspirational experiences and hard challenges. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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‘Asharq Discovery’ Launches ‘Bassma’… Inspirational Journeys of Arab Women

Exceptional interviews with Arab women who lived inspirational experiences and hard challenges. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Exceptional interviews with Arab women who lived inspirational experiences and hard challenges. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Asharq Discovery, the infotainment platform in collaboration with Warner Bros, has launched its new original show, "Bassma". The series highlights the inspirational stories of pioneering Arab women in a changing historic context and different societal vision.

"Bassma" sheds lights on new, unconventional aspects of lives full of achievements and challenges. Each episode unfolds the story of its guest, how they overcame barriers and the impact they had on the media, cultural, intellectual and societal landscape.

The series offers the audience the chance to explore the legendary realms lived by great figures, including actress Youssra, singer Samira Saeed, first Saudi female aerospace engineer Mishaal Ashemimry, accomplished lawyer Sofana Dahlan, motorsport athlete Dania Akeel and Saudi designer Razan Alazzouni.

The show, accessible free-to-view, is exclusively available on Asharq Discovery every Monday at 9 pm KSA.

Audiences across the region can tune in via satellite coverage on Arabsat and Nilesat, as well as through the video-on-demand service Asharq NOW and Asharq Discovery’s social media platforms.



Taipei Zoo's Veteran Giant Panda Celebrates 20th Birthday

Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
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Taipei Zoo's Veteran Giant Panda Celebrates 20th Birthday

Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

With politics set aside, well-wishers gathered to wish the Taipei zoo’s senior panda a happy 20th birthday.
Visitors crowded around Yuanyuan's enclosure to take photos of her with a birthday cake in the shape of the number 20.
Yuanyuan was born in China and arrived in 2008 with her partner Tuantuan. He died in 2022 at age 18 but not before fathering two female cubs, Yuanzai and Yuanbao, now 11 and 4 respectively and still living at the zoo.
Danielle Shu, a 20-year-old Brazilian student in Taiwan, said she found online clips of the pandas an enjoyable distraction. “And I just find it really funny and cute,” The Associated Press quoted Shu as saying.
Giant pandas are native only to China, and Beijing bestows them as a sign of political amity. Yuanyuan and Tuantuan arrived in Taiwan during a period of relative calm between the sides, which split amid civil war in 1949. China claims the island its own territory, to be annexed by military force if necessary.
Faced with declining habitat and a notoriously low birthrate, giant panda populations have declined to around 1,900 in the mountains of western China, while 600 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers in China and around the world.