Street Harassment is a global phenomenon that is largely overlooked, and even considered acceptable despite there being laws against it in many places including Pakistan. Street harassment includes making sexually explicit comments, ogling, whistling, following and groping. In the making of these videos, we found that many Pakistani women, especially from the lower-middle classes began wearing burqas because they found the additional garment enabling in many ways. However, they find that the problem of street harassment has worsened, and even in burqas, they are harassed as they wait for buses, rickshas, taxis, or walk down the street. The women we spoke with in this series of videos had experienced intimidation that crossed class, age, religion and ethnicity.

We are grateful to the young women featured in this video — Nabiha Meher, Aroosa Shaukat and Mehreen Kasana — for having spoken to us about street harassment. They are all three journalists (as journalism is evolving) whether in the realm of social media, blogs or print.

This video was commissioned by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Pakistan National Forum on Women’s Health and Koohi Goth Hospital. Some Fast Facts on Fistula are: Obstetric Fistula is treatable. It is caused by inadequate healthcare during childbirth. Prevention is the key to ending Fistula. It occurs in the most disadvantaged women (in Pakistan, most cases emerge in Balochistan and Sindh). Koohi Goth Hospital treats women for free. Dr Sher Shah Syed who runs PNFWH and Koohi Goth Hospital in Landhi has dedicated his life to the prevention and treatment of this condition.

Street Harassment is a global phenomenon that is largely overlooked, and even considered acceptable despite there being laws against it in many places, including Pakistan. Street harassment includes making sexually explicit comments, ogling, whistling, following and groping. In the making of these videos, we found that many Pakistani women, especially from the lower-middle classes began wearing burqas because they found the additional garment enabling in many ways. However, they find that the problem of street harassment has worsened, and even in burqas, they are harassed as they wait for buses, rickshas, taxis, or walk down the street. We found that this intimidation was experienced by women across class, age, religion and ethnicity.

Street Harassment is a global phenomenon that is largely overlooked, and even considered acceptable despite there being laws against it in many places, including Pakistan. Street harassment includes making sexually explicit comments, ogling, whistling, following and groping. In the making of these videos, we found that many Pakistani women, especially from the lower-middle classes began wearing burqas because they found the additional garment enabling in many ways. However, they find that the problem of street harassment has worsened, and even in burqas, they are harassed as they wait for buses, rickshas, taxis, or walk down the street. We found that this intimidation was experienced by women across class, age, religion and ethnicity.

Claire Ulrich is the Editor of Global Voices en français and member of Global Voices board of directors.
Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work together to bring you reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on indigenous voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media.
Here Claire Ulrich talks about the importance of blogging for yourself on the issue that concerns you. She talks about the diversity of contributors and readers at Global Voices, calling it a network woven together with threads that traverse borders.

This interview was conducted by Amina Agha and Naveen Naqvi on the sidelines of the Deutsche-Welle Global Media Forum 2011.
We talked to Claire for our Global Gawaahi section, where we bring testimonies of journalists (new and mainstream) and online activists from the world over to this Pakistani platform.

Mohamed Ibrahim is the winner of the Best Social Activism Campaign category of the Deutsche-Welle Best of Blogs Awards (BOBs) 2011. He won the prize for the Facebook page, “We are all Khaled Said,” which was a mobilization tool in the Arab Spring.

Nofil Naqvi tells you the fundamentals of a good shoot. Effective framing, interesting composition, rule of thirds are some of the tips he offers. He also goes over basics like how to focus. Watch, listen, and if you have a camera, get out there and shoot a video for Gawaahi!

Nofil Naqvi is a Pakistan-based Director/Producer who has been working in the media and film industries since 1997. He has made documentaries for various NGOs and nonprofits. Currently a freelance filmmaker, Nofil has worked as a Senior Producer at DawnNews, Producer at the BBC Urdu website, Producer at GEO TV and Multimedia Editor at Dawn.com among other assignments that include the US-based NBC News and PBS networks. He is also a Technical Consultant and frequent cameraperson with Gawaahi.com. You can go to http://nofilnaqvi.com to find out more about his work.

Tasneem Ahmar is Director of the Uks Research Center, a research, resource and publication center that focuses on the women-media relationship. Tasneem Ahmar has worked to promote gender equality through sensitization workshops, mentoring, media advocacy, media monitoring and the Uks Radio Project, which is known for its all female team of journalists and broadcasters.

Here she talks to Naveen Naqvi of Gawaahi.com about how there can be more gender-sensitive reporting in the media. Ahmar points out in her Urdu interview that more women in the field could lead to better reporting of women’s issues. This interview is part of Gawaahi.com’s Tips & Tutorials section where we guide aspiring journalists and citizen journalists.