Pakistan, March 29 -- In Pakistan, cyber harassment is not the work of anonymous trolls alone. It is enabled-if not outright maintained-by institutional structures that allow it to thrive without consequence. A recent research study co-led by a team of feminist researchers (Maira Asif, Sidra Fatima Minhas, Fajeera Asif) on tackling marginalization in online spaces offers sobering evidence: digital violence against women, transgender persons, and religious minorities is not random, but a patterned outcome of legal neglect, digital impunity, and political complicity.

Transgender persons are among the most targeted. Hashtags like #AmendTransgenderAct gained traction as part of a disinformation campaign falsely claiming the 2018 Transgender ...