PAKISTAN: Know you Click – Safeguarding Women Voice’s Online

About this Story

This story was first published on the World Pulse platform and is shared here through a collaboration between World Pulse and Imaara Survivor Support Foundation. As part of Imaara’s Project Tell-Tale initiative, selected stories from World Pulse are being cross-posted to amplify survivor voices and strengthen conversations around gender-based violence.

The story was submitted in response to a call for stories connected to the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (2025), inviting survivors, advocates, and allies to share lived experiences, reflections, and pathways toward justice and healing.

Read the original story on World Pulse!

By: Advocate Faiza

(The author has chosen to be identified in this publication)

I know the exhaustion of advocacy is different from the exhaustion of survival. For years, my work focused on physical spaces—shelters, counseling rooms, and legal aid clinics. But recently, the violence shifted. It moved from the streets to the screens, arriving in insidious forms: relentless stalking, deepfakes, and weaponized shame that travels at the speed of light.

It hit home when my close friend, Sarah, became a target.

Sarah is resilient, but when a vicious cyberbullying campaign targeted her professional reputation, I watched her shrink. She deleted her social media, silenced her voice, and retreated into isolation. When I asked if she had reported it, her answer broke my heart.

"I just didn't know who to tell, Aira," she whispered. "The police? The FIA ? My internet provider? They just told me to log off."Sarah not only Log off , she deleted her accounts , she deleted her profiles and she deleted all the efforts she put into her digital advocacy campaign online.

Sarah wasn't alone. She was part of a staggering and vulnerable statistic. While 85% of women globally have witnessed online violence, the crisis in our region has a specific root: data shows that up to 72% of Pakistani women are unaware of their digital rights or the local laws that exist to protect them, such as the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA).

This was the "Knowledge Gap." Women were holding powerful devices in their hands but were paralyzed by a lack of information when those devices were used as weapons. The lack of justice wasn’t just about the perpetrators; it was a systemic failure of digital education and legal preparedness.

I realized my advocacy had to evolve. I couldn't just offer sympathy; I had to offer a map.

I launched "Know Your Click," an initiative designed specifically to bridge this 72% regional gap. We started small, translating dense legal terms into simple, actionable steps. We taught women that digital consent is as sacred as physical consent. We taught them how to document evidence—screenshots, URLs, timestamps—before blocking an abuser.

But educating survivors wasn't enough. If Sarah had gone to a lawyer, would that lawyer have understood the technical nuances of IP addresses or metadata?

To fix the broken pipeline of justice, we knew we had to target the system itself. That is why "Know Your Click" took a critical step forward: we partnered with the Pakistan Women Lawyers Council.

Together, we aren't just teaching women how to click "report"; we are now actively training legal professionals to handle digital violence cases. We are equipping lawyers with the technical literacy needed to defend survivors in court, ensuring that when a woman like Sarah speaks up, the person across the desk understands the language of her trauma.

The impact has been tangible. Just last month, Sarah returned to online spaces. She didn't just log back on; she logged on with two-factor authentication enabled, a folder of evidence saved to the cloud, and the contact number of a lawyer who understands digital rights.

The fight against Gender-Based Violence is now fought on dual fronts: in our homes and on our screens. By aggressively reducing that 72% statistic one workshop at a time, and by building a legal support system that understands the digital age, we are rewriting the narrative. We are proving that the internet belongs to us, too—and we will no longer be clicked into silence.

And also thanks to worldpulse I also had the opportunity to deliver somewhat similar training on Safeguarding women in online spaces…. For those who are interested you find the training online in the training suite of world pulse World Pulse | My Trainings.