In Pakistan, for women "a safe place to exchange, discuss taboo subjects, and support each other"
Audio 03:22
Pakistani Kanwal Ahmed in the video “Conversations with Kanwal” on her Youtube channel Kanwal Ahmed Network (Screenshot).
© Youtube / Kanwal Ahmed Network
By: Christophe Paget Follow
8 mins
This Monday March 8 is International Women's Rights Day.
An opportunity to see the initiatives implemented around the world to ensure that these rights are more respected ... Or quite simply known.
In fact, in general, women often find it difficult to be heard.
To remedy this, Soul Sisters Pakistan is a closed network on Facebook created in 2013 where women can, free from criticism and judgment of men, talk about their problems, support each other and find solutions.
The site now claims 278,000 participants.
Meeting with its founder, the Pakistani Kanwal Ahmed.
Publicity
You got the idea for Soul Sisters Pakistan while listening to future brides you were putting on makeup.
Kanwal Ahmed
:
When you are sitting with your makeup artist before your big day, it is a time when you are very vulnerable: you think about a lot of things, sometimes you have problems and no one to talk to… This is where you you confide.
Since I already had a beauty advice Facebook group where women were starting to talk about their issues, I was like, “
Why not create a specific community
?
"
We created Soul Sisters Pakistan to give women in my country a safe place to socialize, discuss taboo topics, and support each other.
Because society is quite conservative, people don't listen to what women say;
and they had nowhere to discuss matters that make them feel powerless.
Here they are safe: it is a closed group, and discriminatory and hate speech is banned.
They can talk about everything from domestic violence to miscarriages to dowry stories.
But a woman who gets married can also share her joy with her sisters online!
So, of all these subjects, the most discussed is domestic violence ...
The mainstream media really trivialize domestic violence: in series or television shows, it is a source of mockery, they give the impression that it is not serious.
If a woman is hit by her husband, she is told to forgive and move on.
At the beginning it was really a problem when we talked about it.
Everyone was saying, "
Uh, there's this group on Facebook, they're unpacking all their dirty laundry, women shouldn't be talking about what's going on in their homes,
" but we talked about it even more.
These things exist, and only by recognizing the problems can they be solved.
And besides Soul Sisters Pakistan also offers free legal aid.
We have lawyers who can give advice to the whole group, but generally what they do is that when a woman says for example "
I feel miserable, mistreated in my marriage
", the lawyer Reaches her and offers to contact him to see what she can do, to establish a strategy.
Because due to the lack of law enforcement, women sometimes find themselves in very complicated situations - for childcare or for their finances, for example.
These tips make them stronger by letting them know their options and make the best use of them.
Your platform also welcomes in its exchanges women from all over the world.
Yes, and then in other countries there are thousands of groups where women also meet.
I have a friend based in Chicago who runs a group in Nigeria.
All these groups have the same mission: women must support each other;
laws must be stronger, because even in the most developed countries, women's rights are not respected.
Laws that can protect our interests are not being enforced.
So the goal is really to give a voice to those who are least represented.
And besides in addition to Soul Sisters Pakistan you also created a little more than a year ago a program on YouTube, “
Conversation with Kanwal
”.
This show gives recognition to Soul Sisters Pakistan.
It used to be just a gated community.
This show has guests who tell their stories: so our stories are heard more, and they deserve it.
For example our episode on this practice of families visiting a woman to see if she can make a good bride and judge her by her appearance, this episode has gone viral.
Suddenly, other media like the BBC interviewed our guest.
And that gives visibility to these stories.
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