A pretty 15-year-old girl strikes a pose and pouts at the camera on her phone, so far so Generation Z, but unlike her teenage counterparts in the West, she stops short of posting the photograph on social media, restricted in part by Pakistan’s social mores.
It is a confusing time for the nation’s youth — the arrival of 3G and 4G in Pakistan in 2014 and a massive surge in the sale of smartphones has seen social media use surge, making information about largely taboo subjects such as love, dating, even sex more accessible than ever. Young people can communicate online in relative freedom, and the country even has a Kim Kardashian type figure — Qandeel Baloch, who has become famous through her tireless self-promotion and suggestive “selfies” posted on social media, amassing tens of thousands of followers.
However, for many in the deeply conservative Muslim nation, strict religious and familial controls still dictate behavior — the “duck-face” selfie shot, which is almost ubiquitous on the social media pages of teens in the West, can present a hazard in Pakistan.
Photo: AFP
“In my pictures, I cannot pout anymore, I’ve stopped doing that, because otherwise people judge,” the young girl said on condition of anonymity.
“You cannot post a picture outside with your friends, because your relatives, or friends or teachers will criticize you. They will say: ‘You look like a slut. Why are you smiling?’” she said. “So now, I barely change my profile picture anymore. When I started using social media, I thought I’d be a pretty girl with a lot of friends online, but I’m just an awkward girl with five friends.”
The story is echoed by some of her classmates at a middle-income private school in Islamabad, where teenage boys and girls spoke candidly about their online experiences, but declined to be named.
“It all comes back to religion. We are in an Islamic state. People here will judge you because Islam doesn’t encourage girls to show their legs, or arms, and it doesn’t encourage boys and girls to interact,” said one 14-year-old boy who described being scolded by relatives after posting a picture of himself with a girl.
Globally, the perils women face online are well-documented, but Pakistan’s teenage girls face multiple issues — not only can their behavior be judged as tarnishing the families’ reputation or honor, there are rising incidents of cyber-misogyny and harassment.
“When I post pictures, I get these creepy stalkers who send me creepy pictures. It really messes you up,” the 15-year-old girl said, adding that she no longer talks to boys online because of this.
A male classmate agreed.
“I don’t like selfies, and it’s not safe for girls, because it can attract some boy stalkers,” he said.
However, there is also a sense of growing defiance in the country, where about two-thirds of the population — about 180 million people — is believed to be under the age of 30.
On Valentine’s Day, social media starlet Baloch donned a plunging scarlet dress and posted a message defying the country’s president, who had issued a stern warning against the “Western” holiday.
“They can stop people from going out, but they can’t stop people from loving,” she said in a Facebook video, before going on to branding politicians “idiotic and disgusting.”
Baloch is derided and feted in equal measure in Pakistan, but the message appeared to tap into the frustrations of many young people tired of being told how to behave — the footage has been viewed more than 830,000 times, and garnered 7,000 likes and counting.
She shot to fame in Pakistan in 2014 after a video of her pouting for the camera and asking “How em looking?” went viral.
Cyberspace can turn society’s rules upside down, one 13-year-old boy said.
“Online, guys write to girls: ‘Hey baby, let’s hook up,’” he said to a roar of laughter from his classmates.
Once, he admitted to more scandalized giggles, it was the other way around.
“A girl asked me to be friends in an online message. I was scared to death,” he said.
Another 15-year-old girl added social media provided them a unique platform for expression.
“It’s useful to us, it’s our own identity,” she said. “In school, you can’t always speak your mind. On social media, you can be more open about what you like. You get to be yourself.”
Some interviewees said they knew of teenagers using fictitious profiles to protect their identities and behave more freely.
“In a Muslim country, it’s bad to talk to guys face to face so girls do it online, but it’s very risky, some people have fake accounts,” one young girl said.
Despite halting the pouting photographs, the 15-year-old girl called on her peers to be more confident online, instead of hiding behind Pakistani cultural restrictions.
“You can’t blame society for everything... You can’t be a wimp all your teenage life and do nothing. And you can do [something] on social media,” she said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”