Pakistan

Privacy rights are becoming increasingly important and especially in the context of increasing datafication. Shmyla Khan of Digital Rights Foundation in Pakistan talks about the ways in which privacy rights are relevant, used and abused in the lives of women and gender diverse people.

A report that examines the overlapping concerns of gender, privacy, surveillance, and gender-based violence in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, North America. The report raises issues including gender-based violence in the private sphere, rigid gender categories in identity programs its impact on trans people, etc.

The rise of dating apps allows women to take control of their social life and their choices. In this article Hija Kamran speaks to many women in Pakistan about their experience of online dating, both good and bad, whether it allows for challenging of conservative social norms or it leaves women vulnerable to abuse and other risks.

The emerging sub-field of research around gender and digital technology is united in its understanding that gender biases and stereotypes are embedded in technology, and that this reproduces the existing problems around gender parity, gender-based violence, discrimination and exclusion on the internet. This report is a mapping of the research around gender and digital technology in the decade…

The internet has given a space for self-expression to Pakistani LGBTQIA+ people. Where there are risks of being targeted as a result of this visibility, many young queer folks are finding a sense of community through the expression of those around them.

The transgender community in Pakistan has constantly been subjected to persecution and violence hindering their participation in 'normal' life. This violence has increasingly been mirrored into digital world leading to plethora of hashtag campaigns initiated to damage the struggles of the community.

As sex continues to be a taboo in Pakistan's conservative society, men form their understanding of what it looks like from unrealistic pornographic content, leading to direct impact on women and their pleasure in real life. Salwa Rana speaks to women to explore this impact.

Lack of formal and digital literacy hinders South Asian women's access to credible healthcare related information, forcing them to live with illnesses that never get treated. Anmol Irfan discusses the impact of this barrier.

Patriarchal restrictions on internet access lead to impacts that affect all aspects of women's lives in Pakistan. This familial control is not only detrimental to their economic and educational growth, but also is a threat to their safety and health. In this series of illustrations, Aniqa Haider sheds light on the impact of gender digital divide in Pakistan.

This two-part series sheds light on how art and creativity play a key role in activism in Pakistan, and provides the country's feminist movement and struggles a prominent visual aesthetics on the internet.