I did this workshop at PKSMS in June.
Dedicated to the Lahori elite & their trolls who got supremely pissed off when I wrote Shaking Pakistan with Lipstick, which was also published here (the comments are worth reading). This was their response & this was how low they can go.
Also dedicated to off his rocker, beyond belief hateful conspiracy theorist Ali Azmat & I had a twit war where he called me a “psycho” & attacked my sexuality, announcing I’m bitter because he wouldn’t have sex with me. Indeed. Like I’d even touch his bald head with my little finger for millions. He’s deleted the tweets because he’s a coward. Then he called my uncle, started yelling & declared he would “ruin” my life.
Anyway, here it is:
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For one example of a safe space, see The South Asian Idea. It has taken a lot of work but now we receive comments like the following:
“It’s warming to see the responses being so sensible and mature; one doesn’t see that too often in online forums these days.”
One of the models for The South Asian Idea was Johnstonia, an incredible resource for students. Ian Johnston was a mentor and this is the advice he gave when we asked in the early stages: “As for your own project, that sounds very exciting. I’m not sure that I have any very helpful advice other than to promote as much as possible calm, reasonable discussion, so that the blogs become really fertile discussions, rather than soap boxes for all sorts of dogmatic views. That may mean that you have to educate your participants and keep a careful watch on what is going on. I think conversations are the very best way to promote the best education, but they don’t just happen. People have to learn how to participate in them.”
For The South Asian Idea, go to: http://thesouthasianidea.wordpress.com/
For Johnstonia, go to: http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/
Comment by SouthAsian — December 1, 2011 @ 10:51 pm |
I watched this with great interest, and a lot of frustration as well, because all of the ideas you all were suggesting are great, but is there no law set up in Pakistan for cyber crimes, or have I misunderstood?
It’s great that you all are banding together to fight this. Amreeka maiN bhi there are people who do things like this, but there is more recourse here. Keep up the fight!
Also, it was great to see you and listen to you besides reading and replying to your tweets.
Comment by Naveeda — December 2, 2011 @ 12:20 am |
No, the law is indeed very problematic when it comes to cyberbullying.
Thank you
Comment by Nabiha Meher — December 2, 2011 @ 11:57 pm |
People generally lack cyber ethics which actually contributes to a more of a shameless behavior. Cyber Space, because of no physical confrontational, is quite a conducive platform for passing a provocative statement. But your strategy is the better way of countering it. At times offense is the best defence. I appreciate your work and would like to help you out too with your blog and/or confrontations.
Comment by Khalid Saleem — December 7, 2011 @ 8:13 pm |
Cyber laws are the the last thing on the government agendas. Looking at the current law situation and then there are problems in identifying the people who are bullying as most of them are clever enough to use proxies while threatening you or posting obscene pictures of you. I just got to know about your blog through a friend. And the fact that i love is that you are brave enough to spear your mind. Something which our current society does not allow. Anyways keep up the good job
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P.S Now i wish that i was in your writing and comm section
Comment by Danish — December 8, 2011 @ 12:10 am |