Tweeting, trending, empowering all the way.
From November 25 to December 10, a few curious terms start trending on twitter. The trends #16days, #TTBT and #TakeBackTheTech are a part of a virtual campaign to end violence against women by utilizing Information and Communication Technology. The campaign took shape in 2006 when APC Women’s program, realized that the internet had great power as an advocacy tool. Four years down the road, the campaign has taken a truly global form. From November 25th to December 10th, scores of women from all around the world gear up to use their collective virtual power to fight violence against women and advocate for gender empowerment. The 16 days of extensive campaigning is done carried out under the banner ‘Take Back the Tech’.
The idea that the campaigners are trying to spread is simple; use information and communication technology as a tool to address violence against women. Their ultimate aim is to create safe and equal digital spaces; equal because it is getting increasingly obvious that the gender biases prevalent in the society have seeped into the internet and virtual world is as guilty of gender bias as the real one.
Take Back the Tech campaigners in Pakistan, advocate the use of technology to reach out, map incidents of violence and create support networks for victims of violence. But many women, not directly associated with Take Back the Tech, question the effectiveness of a virtual campaign in a country like Pakistan, where internet penetration is barely 12%.
Shumaila Jaffery, an electronic media journalist, and an avid user of social media, is one of the sceptics.
“Even if technology allows women to connect to institutions working to safeguard women rights, where is technology? How many women in Pakistan have access to technology?”
According to Nighat Dad, a veteran ‘Take Back the Tech’ campaigner, many
“While campaigning for Take Back the Tech I met women from all walks of life – students, entrepreneurs, teachers, nurses, lawyers, social activists, government officials, politicians and strongly felt that women in Pakistan want to reclaim their spaces, whether online or offline. Under this campaign we have not only raised awareness about online spaces but also talked about different laws and policies effecting women in Pakistan and we have been doing it through ICT’s which are affecting women in not only online but in offline spaces as well.”; says Nighat.
But as the campaigners run women empowerment campaigns on the web, incidents of harassment through technology are on the rise. Cyber stalking, threats, sexual harassment through mobile and internet, and the distribution of personal, morphed and photo-shoped images via internet or cell phones are becoming favourite pastimes of virtual predators.
Last year, a woman from a small town in Sindh was raped and a video of the horrendous act was made available online. In the Capital, Sanobar, a working woman with a high profile job was put in quandary, after her ex-husband circulated her nude pictures through mms. Before she knew it, the pictures had gone viral on the internet. Sanobar ended up leaving her job and moving to another city to escape the trauma and the persecution.
In yet another incident, Nabeel, after an argument with his boss Saba, obtained a few candid pictures of hers and forwarded them to everyone on her Orkut list. Nabeel was fired for harassment, but the real price was paid by Saba, who did not only quit her job but has refrained from working anywhere since then.
Saba and Sanobar’s reaction, disassociation, is repeated by most women who become victims of cyber harassment. In the absence of laws to persecute crimes that have been committed in the cyber space or through digital means, women often come to believe that they have no other choice but to disassociate themselves from the virtual world. But playing the Ostrich has never solved the problem.
In case of such incidents, the FIA’s National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes that can be contacted. But the response centre is currently operating in a vacuum as there are no cyber crime laws in existence.
Prevention of Electronic Crime Ordinance (PECO) 2007 used to deal with cyber crimes such as cyber terrorism, data damage, electronic fraud and forgery. ‘Used to’ because PECO has not been re-promulgated since 2009. That has hindred pursuing cyber cases for the FIA’s NR3C wing.
In the absence of a law, the only concrete step to stop online abuse is to prevent it by creating a secure cyber profile.
“The foremost thing is to protect your privacy online. Protecting your privacy online is as important as protecting your identity offline. Girls should be very careful what personal information they are sharing online including in an email, photos, phone numbers, their location specially on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and chat rooms.”; says Nighat.
IT experts associated with the campaign also advice women to avoid creating easy-to-guess passwords, using of strict privacy settings, clearing browsing history from work and public computers and making sure that any candid pictures or videos do not reach anyone who could possibly exploit them.
Take Back the Tech campaigners believe in the power of personal stories to prompt people into action, and thus the first part of the virtual campaign is mapping the stories of abuse. Be it culturally-justified violence against women, online harassment, cyber-stalking, intimate partner violence or sexual assault and rape, campaigners ask the women to come out and share their stories. Then next focus is on strengthening web related skills; women are encouraged to learn how to use internet, mobiles and other communication tools safely. More specifically they are encouraged to understand the strategies and tools that protect their privacy online. And finally, women are encouraged to exercise their rights online, starting with really basic things like blocking and reporting virtual predators rather than simply closing their own accounts.
In the past, some of Pakistan’s influential bloggers have come together to run this campaign online. This year number of youtube channels have also sprung up, showing the stories of courageous women who are refusing to take abuse silently and it is by bringing these stories to light that the campaigners are living their motto; Map it, End It, Take Back the Tech.
Names of the victims have been changed to protect identity.
The piece originally appeared in Dawn, Islamabad (Metropolitan)
