Pakistan: #AttacksWontSilenceUs campaign opens Pandora's box of threats to Pakistani women journalists

August 19, 2020, Islamabad — A group of leading Pakistani women journalists attended a meeting facilitated by the parliamentary committee on human rights to address vicious online attacks against women journalists on August 18. The meeting was presided by member of national assembly and chairman of Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who, along with other members of the committee, heard emotional testimonies by journalists who have been subjected to online hate and abuse.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) praises this step taken by the standing committee on human rights. We demand that the Pakistani government also speeds up their actions to combat online violence against women journalists and protect their dignity.

On August 12, 2020, Pakistani women journalists launched a campaign under the hashtag #AttacksWontSilenceUs. The campaign’s launching statement, of which CFWIJ is also a signatory, condemned the vicious attacks on women journalists in Pakistan and called upon the government to immediately restrain those involved in the attacks - especially the members and supporters of its party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf - from repeatedly targeting women working in the press and media industry.

The campaign demanded that the government devise a thorough strategy to deal with trolls, abusers and hate mongers from launching these direct and indirect attacks, instead of being biased against journalists who are critical of its governance. They were urged to hold all such individuals, within or outside PTI’s party structure, accountable in all fairness.

The group of women journalists demanded that the upper and lower house of parliament take notice of their plight and hold the government accountable by ensuring that they acknowledge, apologize and list the actions they will now take to put an end to such a threatening environment.

The campaign caught the attention of both the public and lawmakers, after which Bhutto called a meeting on behalf of the parliament’s standing committee on human rights and invited women journalists to share their testimonies on August 18. The meeting was held to listen to their complaints, propose possible solutions and investigate all parties that may have a link to these orchestrated attacks. 

Journalists, advocates of press freedom, including members of CFWIJ Gharida Farooqi, Asma Shirazi, Amber Rahim Shamsi, Munizae Jahangir, and Tanzeela Mazhar attended the meeting and recorded their testimonies.

CFWIJ member Amber Shamsi, who is at the helm of the campaign, brought her young daughter to the meeting and stated that it should also create the courage to fight against harassment. She said that the families of women journalists suffer a lot due to harassment and these smear campaigns against us.

CFWIJ member and journalist Asma Shirazi also spoke about the constant harassment she has been subjected to for the past few years.

“An organized campaign was launched against me after I went to London to interview former PM Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif… online trolls created fake stories about me. It got so bad that even if I tweeted a verse from the Quran, I would receive abusive comments in response,” she said.

Asma added that one is aware about those behind this campaign, but cannot say it out loud and indicated the possible involvement of state institutions. She shared that she has not just faced threats online; in fact, they have also crept into her physical spaces. Her home was twice broken into on different occasions - once when she was on a family vacation abroad and another time when she was in Pakistan.

“My son was told by his friend in school that your mother takes bribes from Nawaz Sharif. I am ready to fight but there are a lot of young female journalists with me who are told by their families to quit their jobs. We are not going to let you keep our daughters at home by calling them whores or prostitutes,” she added.

CFWIJ member Munizae Jahangir said, “The political parties are our first line of defense. When you crumble, the hands reach us. We have learnt from experience that when you speak up, it makes a difference. Please do not use our statements as an excuse to increase censorship.”

Our member Tanzeela Mazhar also spoke about the issues she has endured after she filed a formal complaint against her harasser at Pakistan Television’s news channel. She said that online abuse targeting her intensified after she took to Twitter sharing about her case in 2017.

In another chilling testimony, journalist Mehmal Sarfaraz shared that the online abuse started over a story about a quarantine center in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“A provincial minister (Taimur Khan Jhagra) publicly questioned her integrity. After that, she started receiving abusive messages from accounts that seemed like they were fans of the party because they included PTI in their name or a picture of Prime Minister Imran Khan as their profile.  The abuse was heavily sexual, accusing her of giving “blow jobs” or sexual favors for money,” she said.

“When I spoke about corona management in Sindh, I received a WhatsApp message that I can’t read out,” she added.

Mohsin Dawar, one of the members of the committee and MNA of Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, attempted to read the message out but couldn’t continue after two sentences. The meeting was stunned into silence and the members seemed visibly uncomfortable.

At this point, Bilawal apologized multiple times to Mehmal Sarfaraz and said, “Our religion, our politics, our culture does not teach us this. Even though the women journalists have only named one political party, the situation has deteriorated to such an extent, that we cannot just limit it to one party. We will put this before the committee to see what recommendations they give.” 

Lawyer and activist Reema Omar also testified in front of the committee.

“It is now well acknowledged in the human rights community that violence against women also exists online… threats against me included how different people would like to rape me. When I got my job, I was accused of getting it in return for sexual favors. When senior party officials call your integrity into question, they put a target on your back. The government should unconditionally condemn these actions,” she said.

Reema also warned against using these statements as an excuse to further curtail freedom of speech that add another layer of censorship in an already heavily censored environment. 

CFWIJ member Gharida Farooqi proclaimed that a female PTI minister Zartaj Gul created a fake story about her alleged affair with Shehbaz Sharif, a senior member of the political party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). She added that she was fired from four jobs following this fake campaign that linked her with the leader of a political party. Gharida did not sit back and registered a complaint with the Federal Investigative Agency’s (FIA) cybercrime wing. However, the case was not followed up and Gharida accused the PTI minister of using her clout to get it dismissed by the FIA.

“I am still abused online over that story. Everytime I tweet something about that party, someone calls me that man’s keep. When I interviewed President Arif Alvi, people accused me of having an affair with him too,” Gharida added.

When she tweeted a CNN story that the New Zealand Christ Church attacker had been to Pakistan once, a Twitter campaign, that she claimed was initiated by a PTI troll and allegedly retweeted by official PTI accounts, labeled her a traitor. It also urged people to kill her on sight. The campaign became so vicious that Gharida could not leave her home for five to six months.

These testimonies by journalists provided evidence on the smear campaign that they have encountered within online spaces. They were emotional and hurtful to the extent that Bilawal professed, “I am especially noting down that you are not blaming one political party. From your testimonies, it looks like the state of Pakistan has weaponized misogyny. I have no other words other than to vociferously apologize.”

Dr. Shirin Mazari, the federal minister for Human Rights, also shared her stance on the abuse women journalists have faced online.

“I absolutely condemn these attacks because I have been a victim of it too. I took it up with our social media team and they categorically denied that they were involved in such trolling. If any PTI linked accounts are involved, give me the information. I assure you we will take action. My daughter has suffered it, I have suffered it. I know what you go through. I want to apologize on behalf of whoever it is—PTI or not PTI—abuse is unacceptable.,” she stated.

Ironically, while preparing for this follow-up statement, CFWIJ noted that an trolling campaign sped up against women journalists who attended the meeting. The campaign generated by bot accounts attacked women journalists and ridiculed their demands.

Gharida spoke about the impact of the meeting stating how the chairperson was committed to address their concerns.

“One of the major things in the NA human rights committee meeting was Bilawal Bhutto announcing my complaint against Federal Minister Zartaj Gul in FIA, which will be sent again to FIA for action,” she said.

When speaking about the meeting with CFWIJ, Asma said, “The statements that we have given in front of the parliamentary committee on human rights were very important, as its role is very crucial. Considering my case, I have been subjected to organized harassment campaigns by various groups for the past two years. I cannot claim that only PTI is behind those campaigns, there are few others also.”

Asma said that she is not very hopeful if a solution to deal with this issue will be found because women journalists are being harassed by faceless people.

“They are organized bots. But (the harassment) has a psychological impact on us. Even though I and other women in the media are feeling very strong after the statement. This was the sole purpose to stand up. Whether this generates a solution or not, this message that we can stand up, will not tolerate harassment and we are not alone in this. It is a joint statement and struggle against harassment that has now started properly,” she said.

CFWIJ supports the stance that these women journalists have taken against their harassers within online spaces. We also welcome that the standing committee on human rights has finally used its authority to call out those involved in these malicious campaigns. It is now time for all stakeholders, particularly the government of Pakistan, to address the concerns of women journalists and take strict measures to ensure their safety, both online and offline.

Through this campaign , we have already joined hands with Pakistani women journalists and will continue to support them. This year too, we have kept a close watch on the threats that pakistani women journalists are vulnerable to and have documented at least 11 different cases of threats and violence, including those related to online harassment and abuse.  

CFWIJ salutes the courage and persistence of Pakistani women journalists who led this campaign and urges the government to take deterrent actions against the online attack. Women journalists are as much free to share their opinions and exercise their right to free speech as their male counterparts. Free speech should no longer be treated as a luxury and anyone who exercises this right must be protected by the state, while a safe environment for women journalists should be a priority at all cost.