Digital violence is real violence

Violence against women remains among the most pervasive and least prosecuted human rights violations in the world. For decades, this violence occurred mainly in homes, workplaces, streets or institutions.

Today, it has expanded into a new and far more complex frontier: the digital realm. As the country and the world mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25 and launch the 16 days of activism campaign, it is critical to recognise that digital violence is not "just online".

It is real violence with deep psychological, social and often physical consequences. For Pakistan, a country undergoing rapid digital transformation, the threat is growing faster than the systems designed to protect women.

Digital violence encompasses a broad spectrum of technology-enabled abuse: cyber-stalking, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, sexually explicit deepfakes, online harassment, doxxing, impersonation, grooming, extortion and coordinated hate campaigns.

Globally, about 38% of women report experiencing some form of online violence, and 85% say they have witnessed it. Between 90 and 95% of all deepfakes circulating online are pornographic in nature, and around 90% of these target women. Women journalists are especially vulnerable: an estimated 73% globally report attacks tied to their work.

These statistics are reflected in Pakistan’s experience.

In Pakistan, digital transformation is accelerating, with over 139 million mobile broadband subscribers and around 143 million internet users in 2024, but protection systems remain weak. The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) reported 3,171 incident complaints of tech-facilitated gender-based violence in 2024 alone, of which 1,772 were filed by women.

Over eight years, the DRF helpline has handled more than 20,000 cases, averaging over 264 cases per month. Yet under-reporting remains severe: a study found that 65% of Pakistani women who face online harassment never report it due to fear, shame or lack of trust in institutions.

Adding to this, the NCSW's 2023 report ‘Digitalisation & Women in Pakistan’ found that nearly 40% of Pakistani women respondents indicated they had experienced cyber-bullying or harassment through digital communication. The same report highlighted that women's access to safe and secure digital participation remains hampered by low digital literacy, limited awareness of legal rights online, and the absence of robust mechanisms to address digital abuse.

According to the NCSW, only around 29% of women were confident in using privacy settings or recognising non-consensual sharing of images as a crime.

The broader cybercrime landscape in Pakistan paints an equally alarming picture. The FIA's Cyber Crime Wing processed 115,868 complaints in 2021, 136,024 in 2022, and 134,710 in 2023, evidence of a persistent rise in digital offences.

In 2023 alone, the FIA verified 82,396 complaints, initiated 18,012 inquiries, registered 1,375 FIRs and obtained only 92 convictions, a conviction rate under 4%. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), established in 2024 to strengthen Pakistan's cybercrime response, reported 171,600 complaints in its first full year, a 12.7% increase over previous years. For women, these numbers point to a consistent and troubling reality: digital violence is increasing, but accountability is not.

This widening gap between rising abuse and limited justice perpetuates impunity. Survivors face a vicious cycle, after reporting abuse, procedures are slow, insensitive or poorly managed; evidence collection is inconsistent; prosecutions drag on for years.

Especially in cases involving intimate images or blackmail, women face social stigma, reputational damage and pressure (often from family or community) to abandon the case. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is thus not only a legal challenge but also a societal one, where survivors pay the price while perpetrators frequently walk free.

Into this picture must also be inserted one of the starkest signals of Pakistan’s gender inequality: the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index. In the 2025 edition, Pakistan ranked 148th out of 148 countries, with a gender-parity score of just 56.7%.

Key dimensions tell the story: the country’s educational attainment subindex rose to 85.1% mainly due to a slight improvement in female literacy, yet economic participation and opportunity slipped by 1.3 percentage points amid widening income and wage disparities; political empowerment remained dismal at a parity score of just 11%. These dismal rankings illustrate why the digital-violence conversation is not peripheral; it is central to gender equality in Pakistan.

Why do these rankings matter in the context of digital violence and the significance of November 25? Because the four dimensions used by the WEF — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment — all intersect deeply with the digital world and with women’s safety online.

Educational attainment enables women to gain digital literacy and protective skills.

Economic participation means financial independence and a presence in digital and public realms; yet when women are threatened online they may withdraw from visibility. Political empowerment means women have voice, representation and influence, but when they are harassed online, their very ability to engage in governance and policy is undercut.

Health and survival, while less obviously linked to the digital realm, reflect a broader environment of bodily autonomy, physical safety and access to support, all of which are undermined when women are targeted online and exposed offline.

On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Pakistan must recognise that digital violence is not ancillary but intrinsic to the gender-gap challenge. If women are unsafe online, they are unsafe everywhere.

If they cannot control their online presence without fear of harassment or manipulation, their digital empowerment collapses into vulnerability.

To move forward, Pakistan must adopt a bold and comprehensive strategy. First: legislation should be updated and expanded to explicitly criminalise deep-fake pornography, hybrid digital harassment and coordinated disinformation campaigns targeting women. Laws must also embed strong protections for survivors: confidentiality, no-re-victimisation, and platform obligations to remove harmful content swiftly.

Second: institutions must be strengthened with specialised gender-sensitive cyber units, well-trained investigators and prosecutors who understand both the technological and psychological dimensions of digital abuse.

Third: public education is essential. Schools, universities, workplaces and communities must integrate digital literacy and online-safety training that empowers women and girls to identify grooming, recognise deep-fakes, protect their data, and report abuse. Judges, law-enforcement officers, journalists and policymakers must also be trained to understand these emerging harms.

Fourth: society itself must change. Political parties, media houses, influencers and communities must publicly reject online misogyny, harassment and digital violence irrespective of ideology. Digital spaces must be reclaimed as places for dialogue, creativity and opportunity, not intimidation. Women’s leadership, visibility and digital participation are central to Pakistan’s social and economic progress. A country cannot move forward when half its population is afraid to be online.

The data tells the story. The NCSW’s findings show that nearly four-in-ten women have already experienced digital harassment. The cybercrime statistics show the scale of the threat. The Global Gender Gap ranking shows how far Pakistan still has to go. And November 25 reminds us not only of the urgency but of the deeper link between gender equality and digital safety. 

Digital violence is real violence, and the cost of ignoring it is far too high. Pakistan must commit — publicly, systematically, digitally — to building a future where women can learn, lead, create and participate without fear. There can be no compromise, no delay and absolutely #NoExcuse.

The writer is a public policy expert and leads the Country Partner Institute of the World Economic Forum in Pakistan. He posts @amirjahangir and can be reached at: [email protected]

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.

Originally published in The News