Digital security trainings for female students, Pakistan
From Gender and Tech Resources
| Title | Hamara Internet |
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| Category | Privacy Advocacy |
| Start | 2015/02/01 |
| End | 2015/02/02 |
| Hours | 15 |
| Scale | Pakistan |
| Geolocalization |
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| Organisation | Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan in partnership with Tactical Technology Collective, Peshawar 2.0, Aware Girls, Karachi Univeristy, Lahore Univeristy for women, Baluchistan University, IM Sciences, Gilgit Baltistan University |
| Website | http://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/ |
| Target audience | Women students, Young female Students (In women universities), Women journalists and bloggers, Women Human rights Defenders , Women from Minority groups |
| Number of participants | 180 |
| Context and motivations | Pakistan is ranked as the third most dangerous country in the world for women. Women make half of this country's population but their inclusion and participation in larger socio-economic development processes is hardly visible and still need a huge effort to bring at par with any international standards or best practices. Mostly women in Pakistan are deprived of their basic human rights. The weak implementation of legislation and cultural biases has made them more vulnerable. In addition, women have been traditionally targeted through socio- economic oppression, cultural and religious biases, sexual harassment, lack of opportunities and domestic violence. They have been deprived of education that most importantly results in the lack of opportunities for their social and economic well being.
The Issue -- Cyber Harassment and Access to ICTs: The Internet is an essential tool that provides a way for women to get access to the wider world — the world of networks, communities, health and education information, financial advice and business skills training. It’s a platform for women to seek help where they need it, so helping to redress the gender imbalance and foster the empowerment of women. Pakistani Women can also play an important part in the economic sphere of the country if important steps would have been taken to prevent different forms of harassment which are pervasive in the society. Pakistan is a country which has benefited from the advances in technology. There have been a lot of technological breakthroughs in the past few years which have made it easier for people to get connected. The Internet has been a treasure trove of knowledge and made our lives easier. Unfortunately all good things come with a price. The price is cyber stalking, harassment, blackmailing which is slowly becoming the norm within the country. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a second underdeveloped province of Pakistan where honor killing of women is common, four women were killed due to a mobile video which went viral in a village in the area of Kohistan http://tribune.com.pk/story/671386/justice-delayed-in-kohistan/ Even in cities educated families who give access to ICTs to their young girls, restrict the access if they find out that the harassment is happening. Due to the fear of losing access to ICTs, women do not often speak about cyber harassment to their families. Awareness about using secure and safe Internet and ICTs is not common in Pakistan especially among young women and girls. |
| Topics | Pakistan, students, Digital security, privacy |
| Links | http://hamarainternet.org/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-brown/10-great-ways-the-interne_b_68177 |
| Media | [[File:]] |
| Agenda | For those women who already have access to Internet and mobiles, it’s important to make full use of it. Digital Rights Foundation envisions a place where all people, and especially women, are able to exercise their right of expression without being threatened and we strongly believe that open access to internet with access to information and impeccable privacy policies can encourage such a healthy and productive environment that would eventually help not only women, but the world at large.
Through Tactical Technology Travel grant, “Hamara Internet” will travel to 5 universities in five provinces of the country and conduct awareness raising sessions with 50 to 70 women in each university. Hamara Internet has already conducted several sessions with women not only in urban parts of the country but also remote areas as well. Sessions were designed to raise awareness around making digital spaces a secure, progressive and open platform for Pakistani women. Sessions will address issues such as: 1. Ensuring access of information technology for women. (FREEDOM) 2. Facilitating women/girls on digital security, safety and privacy. (SUPPORT) 3. Creating awareness regarding legal protection from online harassment or abuse. (PROTECTION) Overall Objective: Prevention and Protection against online violence: To prevent cyber harassment and to promote better understanding of using safe and secure Internet. Capacity Building: To build young women's ability to influence internet companies and mobile phone operators to develop corporate user policies and practices that respect women's rights. Equitable Access to ICTs: To enhance equitable access to (Information and Communication) ICTs in Pakistan. Empowerment and Championing online access: Producing women ICT leaders to serve as advocates for the benefits of open access to safe and secure. Expected Results: Better understanding of cyber crimes law and how women can attain legal remedies Better access to internet and ICTs securely and safely Gender oriented National ICTs Policies and Laws Massive awareness raising of open source digital security tools and online resources Identifying women leaders who will initiate the same process within their communities, organizations and educational institutes |
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| Methodologies | Hamara Internet hosted four workshops in different remote towns of Pakistan. In workshops women activists and students were trained to use social media and digital tools to make their work more effective they are already doing with the communities. After different session they were able to know about different laws which deal with the cyber abuse and violence, they got to learn about the basic digital security tools and privacy techniques they can apply while using ICTs. |
| Resources | In Hamara Internet, we developed a website http://hamarainternet.org while including different section which will be helpful to build the campaign in the future. This includes digital security content in urdu language from Tactical Technology Collective, information regarding training and workshops, Research and advocacy material, section about women related laws and policies (in process) and mapping the stories of cyber abuse.
We have also printed stickers and badges with different messages about privacy and cyber abuse against women. We have also started social media networks on facebook https://www.facebook.com/HamaraInternet and twitter handle @HamaraInternet Advocacy material has been disseminated during four trainings in Muzaffargarh (South Punjab) Hyderabad (Sindh) Peshawar City University and Nowshera (KPK). Urdu flip cards on “My shadow” from Tactical Technology Collective was also part of the advocacy material. A small session was also delivered at Peshawar basecamp “A coworking space for entrepreneurs and young technologists. |
| Gendersec |
| Feelings | The women ‘Hamara Internet’ has trained over these past few months were mostly from rural areas & university students. We’ve witnessed that these women not only start partaking in regular use of social media but actively encourage peers to use internet for gaining access to information whilst exercising all the safety precautions they were trained to use. This is inline with the goals & objectives of Hamara Internet, where our primary aim was to bring these young women into the online spaces & have their voices heard widely, safely & securely without any fear of threat or violence. They gain confidence to not only actively participate in online sphere but eventually they transit to more offline forms of activism. This is a direct result of their online presence that they build after they start using online tools for interaction & it was only possible once they were able to use internet securely, hence they start spending more hours online. |
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| Feedbacks | For Hamara Internet Campaign, Digital Rights Foundation partnered with International groups like Tactical Technology Collective and local groups like Peshawar 2.0 and City University Peshawar. Young women and men from Universities were extremely interested to do the larger conference and involve more university students at broader level. |
| Start | What will you start doing ? |
| Stop | What will you stop doing ? |
| Keep | What will you keep doing ? |