The many faces of domestic abuse in Pakistan with Hera Hussain, Nighat Dad and Kanwal Ahmed (Urdu)
- E4
- 50:47
- July 31st 2019
This episode is in Urdu.
Our founder, Hera Hussain sits down with two fellow Pakistanis - Nighat Dad, internationally celebrated activist and human rights defender and Kanwal Ahmed, a pioneer who is changing the entertainment industry's landscape with human stories.
Kanwal Ahmed started the Soul Sisters Pakistan group 6 years ago which has given more than 189 000 women a safe space to be themselves and share their stories. After being selected by Facebook for their Community Leadership Programme (FCLP), Kanwal has been hosting her own talk show, Conversations with Kanwal. which features real-life stories of women, in their own words covering important issues such as domestic abuse, grief, colourism and child labour. Her videos have garnered millions of views online from across the world. Due to her work, hundreds of women reach out to Kanwal every day about their experiences of domestic abuse.
Nighat Dad is a lawyer and the founder of Digital Rights Foundation which works to help Pakistani women fight against online harassment. She is a campaigner for online freedom and contributed to a law against acid attacks. She specializes in family law and cyber law and was named one of TIME magazine's next generation leaders. In 2016, she was awarded the Atlantic Council Digital Freedom Award and Dutch government's Human Rights Tulip award. She became TED Fellow in 2016 and spoke at the TED Global stage. Her Online Harassment helpline supports countless women in Pakistan every month.
And in case you are new to us, here's a bit about us and Hera Hussain. Hera is the Founder of CHAYN - a global volunteer-run project crowdsourcing resources on the web to address gender-based violence. This all started from the original Chayn Pakistan (chaynpakistan.org). Chayn has reached more than 300 000 people through its resources which are designed with survivors of abuse. Hera was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 and MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 list.
Here are some important links for help:
Digital Rights Foundation: www.digitalrightsfoundation.pk
Digital Rights Foundation Anti-Harassment helpline:
Soul Sisters Pakistan: facebook.com/groups/soulsistersproject
Conversations With Kanwal: facebook.com/ConversationswithKanwal
Chayn Pakistan: chaynpakistan.org
How to build your own domestic violence case without a lawyer: chayn.gitbook.io/how-to-build-a-domestic-abuse-case-without-a-lawye/
Do It Yourself Online Safety guide (Urdu, Pashto): chayn.co/safety
You can follow Hera, Kanwal and Nighat on twitter:
https://twitter.com/herahussain
The podcast was recorded virtually as everyone was in a different part of the world (UK, Canada and Pakistan).
Music by Diana Tso.
Gupshup by Chayn
Hosted by Chayn, we bring gritty and heartfelt conversations to you about how women are tired of being marginalised, and how they are taking up the tools of the world to dismantle patriarchy (did anyone catch that bell hooks reference?). We'll discuss the latest projects Chayn does on bringing survivor-led design and intersectional analysis to create platforms, spaces and guides to help women and non-binary people experiencing violence. We'll also interview people we admire, our volunteers and friends to discuss gender-based violence and what is being done about it.
Chayn (pronounced ch-en) is a global volunteer network addressing gender-based violence by creating intersectional survivor-led resources online. Started in 2013, we have since reached more than 300 000 people and 1.5 million views across the world. Most of our volunteers are survivors of abuse. Find out more on chayn.co!
Though most podcasts will be in English, there will be episodes in all the 8 languages we work in. Gupshup means chit chat in Urdu.
