Portal helps women in Pakistan in case of harassment and gender-based violence
Ab Or Nahin, an online portal by Digital Rights Foundation, provides free help for women in Pakistan who seek legal representation and psychological counselling in cases of sexual harassment, abuse, and gender-based violence. It offers resources to survivors to which otherwise they would not have access to, such are experienced lawyers and professional counsellors. Immediately after its launch beginning of February, they have received four such cases. Nighat Dad, Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) founder, activist, and lawyer, spoke about women’s need of such an initiative: ‘DRF people, including female lawyers, felt we needed to start because in the last one year we saw a spike in these cases and complaints, specifically to our helpline and our Facebook pages and to me, mostly after the Meesha Shafi case I took up. There hasn’t been much information around these services. In this digital age, these initiatives need to do much more to raise awareness about themselves and what they offer. There also needs to be much more conversation around legal aid.’ The website offers options such are to get in touch with the DRF team via email, to ‘speak to a Lawyer’, to ‘Speak to a Counsellor’, as well as ‘Resources’, and ‘FAQs’.
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