Nighat Dad
Nighat Dad is the Executive Director of the Digital Rights Foundation. Nighat is one of the pioneer women's rights activists in Pakistan and has played a pivotal role in defining the cyberspace narrative in the country, and has been at the forefront of Pakistani feminist movements. She was recently named a member of the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent and diverse committee that works to keep content on Facebook in check. A lawyer by profession, Nighat has also been listed as the TIME's magazine Next Generation leader back in 2015, and won the Human Rights Tulip Award in 2016. Nighat is also a TED Global Fellow and has used these platforms to create awareness about the patriarchal strongholds in Pakistan, and how they affect the everyday lives of women, online and offline.
Friday 5th March
Justice, not #hashtags: Navigating Violence Against Women and its Digital Reflection
The Opening Panel explores why women are often at the wrong end of policy, social and institutional choices. The panel looks at the incidence of GBV and the impact of violent incidents like the one at Minar e Pakistan, the Noor Mukhaddam case and others and their impact on women’s psyche. It will also touch upon the response of tech giants and how algorithms don’t recognise violence in our context or in our local languages. It also explores how hashtags are for both victims of violence and women activists, who then become targets of digital violence themselves and how violence has impacted Pakistani women at a visceral, physiological and psychological level.