Lahore
With her flashing rings, green-streaked hair and “Hack the patriarchy” laptop stickers, Nighat Dad is a digital warrior. But this human rights award winner and founder of Pakistan’s first cyber-harassment helpline still tears up as she describes receiving calls from women afraid of being killed by male relatives for using the internet. “We sometimes find ourselves helpless… Somebody calls us and asks for help while crying that ‘Please, please save my life’,” she tells AFP at the offices for her non-profit Digital Rights Foundation in Lahore. Much of Pakistani society lives under the patriarchal, outdated code of so-called “honour” that systemises the oppression of women by preventing them from, for example, choosing their own husband or working outside the home. Activists have denounced pervasive, sometimes deadly violence by men – usually male relatives – against women who break those taboos. –AFP