Modern Technology and Women Empowerment in Pakistan

Introduction

“Frailty, thy name is woman.” These words of Hamlet’s, Shakespeare’s protagonist, do not simply expose a galled son, they lay bare menfolk’s general stance towards womenfolk. This orthodox attitude has existed since time immemorial. Frailty, fragility, weakness have been associated with woman down the ages, hence the references to her: weaker sex and fairer sex.

Generally considered physically and economically unable to protect themselves, women are subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse in and outside home. Bias, exploitation and sexual harassment are every second girl’s experience, and sadly, domestic violence tops the list. This has been the case in every culture and society in complete disregard of social, religious and moral values of people settled in any part of the world, including the Muslim world, as illustrated in the quote below:

The misogyny is further fed by violence-oriented gory games and movies in which women are portrayed as beauties, too fragile to protect themselves. According to Anna Davtyan-Gevorgyan, women are usually presented in advertising and media as young, slim and with beauty, perfectly in sync with the accepted standards. Such portrayal of women has affected public attitude that treats women as sex objects (Gevorgyan, 2016).

As a matter of fact, women comprise half of the world population (INED, 2017). Therefore, it is very important to educate, skill and provide all necessary safety to them across the globe in order to effectuate global prosperity. It is also equally crucial to develop public awareness about the opportunities women can avail to improve their life standard with an enhanced sense of security. Given these facts, certain tech-savvy individuals and groups have taken it upon themselves as a duty to enhance public sensitivity and sensibility to the issue of women rights and their capacity building. Their efforts center on socio-economic empowerment of women, leading to their all-embracing safety in public and private lives.

The current chapter highlights some of the efforts undertaken by Government, privately owned organizations or individuals to provide Pakistani women socio-economic security. The chapter also features success stories of certain women tech-stalwarts to spotlight the flipside of this generally perceived patriarchal society. Its basic purpose is to develop awareness in public, especially women, about the various ways in which technology is being used to upgrade the status of women nation-wide, protect their rights, educate masses about these rights, and provide women opportunities for capacity building.

Broadcast-Social Media And Women’S Issues

Sexual assaults, rapes, domestic violence are commonplace occurrences in Pakistan. However, country-wide campaigns to protect the rights of Pakistani women have gathered momentum in recent years. The credit, in the main, goes to social media and broadcast technology that have proved effective tools to spotlight the heinous crimes perpetrated against women of any age or social background. The same has also played a surrogate agent for law enforcers in many such cases and helped bring the criminals to justice. For example, both media played an instrumental role in the murder hunt, involving a seven year old child, Zainab Ansari. Had it not been for the CCTV camera recording of the child walking away with the bearded Imran Ali, her abductor, and serial rapist-cum-murderer would have been impossible to find in a country where overpopulation and incidence of crimes have spiraled like two fierce rivals competing to outdo each other.

The role of social media in this regard was no small either. Being a platform for social networking, Facebook and Twitter together with electronic media catalyzed nation-wide outrage over the issue, pressurizing the concerned authorities to shake off their usual inertia and hunt down the schmuck rapist. Now, the rest, rests upon the judiciary to bring the culprit to justice.

Zainab Ansari is one case in point. Sharifan Bibi’s case is another, which has been followed effectively by the media. Whether the 14/15 years old Sharifan really gets justice, now depends upon the concerned court (The News, 2018).