LAHORE: Facebook has deleted a women-only group in Pakistan with more 300,000 members who used it to freely discuss taboo topics, its founder told AFP on Friday.
Soul Sisters Pakistan, created in 2013, acted as a support group for women who shared information about sex, divorce, and domestic violence – issues often deemed inappropriate to discuss publicly in conservative, Muslim-majority Pakistan.
“This group means so much to women in Pakistan who now have nowhere to go to,” Kanwal Ahmed told AFP.
According to Ahmed, Facebook deleted the group late Wednesday after warning her of an unspecified “intellectual property violation” linked to a post.
“They didn’t even show which post it was,” said Ahmed, who was selected as a community leader by Facebook in 2018 thanks to the group’s success.
“It’s literally personal stories and anonymous posts.”
AFP has contacted Facebook for comment.
The group enabled members to offer each other informal help, ranging from legal advice to emotional support, on topics that might otherwise have drawn abuse if posted about publicly.
“The suspension of Soul Sisters Pakistan speaks to the arbitrary and non-transparent ways in which social media platforms operate and subtle ways in which community guidelines of these platforms can work against users in the Global South,” Shmyla Khan, a digital rights researcher in Lahore, told AFP.
Soul Sisters Pakistan has previously come under fire from critics who accused it of promoting divorce and “wild” behavior challenging tradition and patriarchal norms.
More than 80 percent of women in Pakistan have reported being harassed in public places, UN Women said in 2020, while around a quarter of women have experience physical or emotional violence from their husband or partner, according to a 2017-2018 health ministry survey.
“I feel lost without the group,” said Shiza, who only gave her first name. “This is where I used to go when life seemed too difficult to bear.”
Online censorship is rife in Pakistan.
Social media platform X has been disrupted consistently by the government since shortly after the national election in February, which was marred by rigging allegations.
TikTok has twice been banned by the telecommunications authorities over “inappropriate content,” lifted only after assurances that the platform would better moderate content.
More than 18 million videos were removed between October and December, according to latest data from TikTok, while YouTube was banned between 2012 and 2016 over content deemed blasphemous.
Facebook deletes popular Pakistan support group for women — founder
https://arab.news/4jw8t
Facebook deletes popular Pakistan support group for women — founder
- Soul Sisters Pakistan previously came under fire from critics who accused it of promoting divorce, ‘wild’ behavior
- The group’s over 300,000 members discuss wide ranging issues, such as domestic violence, and share legal advice
Death toll in Pakistan wedding suicide blast rises to six
- Attack targeted members of local peace committee in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan
- Peace committees are community-based groups that report militant activity to security forces
PESHAWAR: The death toll from a suicide bombing at a wedding ceremony in northwestern Pakistan rose to six, police said on Saturday, after funeral prayers were held for those killed in the attack a day earlier.
The bomber detonated explosives during a wedding gathering in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, injuring more than a dozen, some of them critically.
“The death toll has surged to six,” said Nawab Khan, Superintendent of Police for Saddar Dera Ismail Khan. “Police have completed the formalities and registered the case against unidentified attackers.”
“It was a suicide attack and the Counter Terrorism Department will further investigate the case,” he continued, adding that security had been stepped up across the district to prevent further incidents.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the blast so far.
Khan cautioned against speculation, citing ongoing militancy in the area, and said the investigation was being treated with “utmost seriousness.”
The explosion targeted the home of a member of a local peace committee, which is part of community-based groups that cooperate with security forces and whose members have frequently been targeted by militants in the past.
Some media reports also cited a death toll of seven, quoting police authorities.
Emergency officials said several of the wounded were taken to hospital soon after the blast.
Militant attacks have intensified in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad accusing Afghan authorities of “facilitating” cross-border assaults, a charge Kabul denies.
