KARACHI: The Women Media Centre (WMC) has held a dialogue on its premises on ‘Digital Spaces: Shaping Media Politics and Democracy’.

The CEO and founder of the centre, Fauzia Shaheen, said that women are giving media shape in the digital space even though they have had to face online harassment and cyberbullying without getting any support from these menaces. “Women are basically stopped from being the assertive voice,” she said.

Senior journalist Sidra Dar added to that by pointing out how members of certain political parties harass prominent media women on social media platforms. “They run campaigns against them,” she said, adding that seeing the insults showered on the women, other women would think twice before tweeting anything serious.

She also regretted the fact that there are very few exceptions of women in high positions and decision-making positions in the media although there may be a number of them as news anchors. “And even where a woman reaches such a position where she gets to make decisions, the men speak of her with bias,” she said.

Academic and columnist Dr Tauseef Ahmed Khan regretted that society has still not realised that treating women equally means progress for the country. “We have had a woman prime minister, we have had women in the opposition but these are their personal achievements as our society has still not accepted them in leadership roles,” he said.

He also suggested that more and more women should join the media industry. “It will prevent the standing out of a few women,” he said.

Social activist Quratulain Mirza said that the issue was that a person’s gender is tied to their social existence here. “Women in our society are victimised whether they observe purdah or don’t observe purdah. Society has commodified us,” she said.

“Sadly, the performance or work evaluation of a woman here starts from her clothes, makeup, hairstyle, etc. That is also why, the women who don’t cover their heads with the dupatta, do so when in the public eye because it serves as a character certificate for them,” she said, adding that in such circumstances there is a need for resilience and resistance.

Senior journalist and active trade unionist Sheher Bano said that women’s needs are usually different from men’s needs. “But sadly, what they need is decided by a man,” she said. “Here the laws also are not compatible with women’s needs. For instance, a man working in the media is given health cover for his spouse and parents but it is not the same for women in the same position,” she said while explaining that the law is outdated and is from a time when women were not seen in the role of the sole breadwinner though things have changed now.

Maria Ismail, the only woman court reporter from the Sindhi print media, highlighted several issues faced by women reporters, transport being a big issue for them.

Munazza Siham, the first woman general secretary of the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors, reminded that many women in our society are also victims of self-rejection. “And this self-rejection begins from home when family members turn the blame of things going wrong on you, or when they remove clauses that are there to safeguard the girl’s rights from the nikah document,” she said, adding that women need to know how to protect themselves. And that they should not be fearful in their profession. “You should not let fear get in your way and you should learn to leap over the barriers put in your way,” she said.

Senior journalists Mazhar Abbas and Shaheen Atiq also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2025