Feminist talk

Internet censorship in the name of morality in Pakistan is rampant, and the trend continues to grow as new laws and regulations are introduced. But just a cursory look at this trend reveals that the censorship is not just vague, but also sexist, targeting women's expression and experiences online.

Young Black women are moving away from the "Stong Black Woman" narrative, and using online platforms to redefine digital feminism for them. Fungai Machirori explores how one young Black woman is attempting to hack the system. But is it working?

Living under constant fear of being targeted with religious hate and hate speech is a shared experience of Sri Lanka’s Muslim community. In this podcast, journalist and researcher Sara Pathirana talks to Sheikh Arkam Nooramith – a Sri Lankan Islamic scholar, and Ms. Hafsah Muheed – an experienced professional working on gender-based violence and women’s health, about how the community deals…

Gender-based violence is prevalent in Philippines, and it is targeted towards young girls, women and LGBTQI+ communities not just in public spaces by state leaders and known individuals, but also in more private online settings. Impunity in many cases have only enabled perpetrators to continue the violence. This set of comic strips highlights different kinds of gender-based hate speech in the…

Despite a boom in dating apps geared towards Muslim community, expectations of “morality” from Muslim women makes dating, and particularly online dating, a daunting experience. This comic strip explores how women are blamed for the intimate partner violence while they also face a barrage of abuse, and adds a layer of religiosity to the discussion that sets strict moral grounds only for women…

Indonesia has celebrated gender diversity even before the country's independence. This is indicated by the existence of five genders in the Bugis (South Sulawesi) tradition, namely: Makunrai (female), Oroane (Male), Calabai (Male with women soul), Calalai (Female with man soul) and Bissu. During the Old Order in Indonesia, some of these groups were targeted, and in the contemporary, there are…

In Vale do Ribeira, São Paulo, Brazil, a group of ecological, quilombola farmer women, in partnership with two feminist organisations: APC and Sempreviva Organização Feminista (SOF), managed to deploy and operate their Wi-Fi mesh network. Bruna Zanolli highlights the importance of building trust, empathy and feminist guidelines in the community so that their internet infrastructure could…

Marcela Guerra shakes us through her tarot card “The Tower”, raising awareness of the urgent need for a fresh start, for human-centred societies and infrastructures, or perish as Mother Nature agonises, and inequalities are exacerbated.

Upasana Bhattacharjee further builds on this notion of community network not only as a local connectivity infrastructure serving the unserved people and rural areas left out by markets or states, but mainly as a social actor that builds knowledge, autonomy and agency at the local level, through a community-owned infrastructure and organized operation.

This article provides insights into the recently passed Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act, 2021 in Zambia, from the perspective of Laura Miti, an award-winning human rights defender. Mitri alerts on how this act gives sweeping powers to the government to hush criticism of any kind and curtail freedom of expression and privacy.