Asia

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 COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the digital divide that exists in rural Indonesia as the world moved to technology for everyday needs and tasks. The residents of the villages set up community radios to address this gap, which then helped in addressing many economic, educational, communication and entertainment needs of the residents.

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.

Patriarchal control on digital access in Sri Lanka continues to keep women away from opportunities and connections, creating a sense of alienation amongst them. Zinara Rathnayake discusses how family restrictions on the ownership and usage of the internet and smartphones impact Sri Lankan women.

Sexism, misogyny and homophobia bars women and gender-diverse folks' access to the internet in Myanmar, leading to violence to continue to perpetuate without any repercussions for perpertrators. In this podcast, Nandar talks to a digital security expert about experiences of vulnerable people on the internet.

A short comic on the anxieties of sharing yourself and your work online, and how one has to commodify all aspects of themselves online, which can open doors to unwanted risks and online hate.

Owing to the constantly increasing threats to their safety, women and LGBT+ folks struggle to have a sense of privacy on the internet in Pakistan. Finstas, or fake Instagram, provides them a safe space for their self-expression. Momina Mindeel explores the serious repercussions of privacy violations, and the 'need' for finstas.

In Iran, women are protesting to demand bodily autonomy and their right to live, in the wake of the state-backed murder of a 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by the morality police. The government is responding by killing more women, attacking protestors and censoring the internet to contain the information.

The research shows that the introduction of technology brings with itself the same problems that haunt other sectors of platform-mediated gig work. On-demand platforms seek to exert control over most points of the service delivery process, including job distributions, client selection, worker pay and performance evaluation, all the while relegating workers to an independent contractor status…

Between August 2018 and October 2020, APC’s partners carried out this regional survey related to sexuality on the internet in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. This publication is based on the country regional surveys conducted in local languages by EROTICS partners and focal points.