KARACHI: The media monitoring organisation Uks Research Resource Centre hosted a webinar on ‘SafeWords: Combating Sexist Abuse in Urdu and Punjabi’ in collaboration with WACC to showcase the findings and achievements of their year-long project about sexist and abuse in Urdu and Punjabi on Thursday.

Speaking about the project, the director of Uks said that they started a 365-day campaign ‘#pehlaysochophirbolo’ or ‘#thinkbeforeyouspeak’ where they undertook several activities for collecting data on the sexist and abusive terminology and language used on social media.

“Even when they are talking among themselves, the men drag or target women in their conversation,” she pointed out.

She also said that their project was aimed at spreading awareness regarding this issue as usually people are in denial and say they never use such language but they do without even realising it.

Project aims at getting social media platforms on board to develop filter to check sexist language used in Urdu and Punjabi

“Women should not leave social media platforms due to this and people should raise their voice against vulgar language in posts, which also include dirty pictures,” the Uks director added.

Sharing the project findings during a presentation which started with a disclaimer as it included abusive screenshots, Shahrezad Samiuddin from the Uks team said that there are gender biases rooted in our culture. “Urdu and Punjabi are widely spoken in both Pakistan and India and we found lots of examples of abuse in both languages online,” she said.

“In Pakistan, some 25 per cent women have access to the internet and these numbers get even lower in rural areas. Of course, this data may not be entirely correct as many women use a device, which may not be owned by them. But due to the abuse many women even stop accessing the internet,” she said.

Uks was able to develop a comprehensive compendium of sexist abusive Urdu and Punjabi terms. People also came to them to share their insights during their #pehlaysochophirbolo’ or ‘#thinkbeforeyouspeakcampain’ campaigns and asked for online misogyny to be tackled.

“Filters where bad language is just not allowed to be posted as you receive a warning beforehand are needed for Urdu and Punjabi,” Samiuddin said.

The project also aims at getting Meta, X, formerly Twitter, and other social media platforms on board to develop a profanity filter that could check the abuses and sexist/misogynist language used in Urdu and Punjabi.

But she also pointed out the hurdles there. “There is no one spelling of an abusive term in Urdu and Punjabi. Also, some use abbreviations of abusive terms,” she pointed out.

The research carried out by Uks also includes podcasts that are available on their YouTube channel. Earlier this year, their work also received endorsement from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on International Women’s Day when it posted a message on social media in support of women’s digital empowerment while naming Uks.

A webinar participant, Syed Imran Ali Shah, also urged Uks to take on another research project about cybersecurity and the safe use of the internet.

While appreciating the research, media development specialist Afia Salam suggested that they team up with other media advocacy and research organisations which have also done exceptional research on similar topics.

She said parents who know little about things such as safeguards, privacy settings, etc, should also be taken onboard so that they can advise their children.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024