Facebook deletes popular Pakistan support group for women, founder says

Soul Sisters Pakistan, created in 2013, acted as a support group for women who shared information about sex, divorce, and domestic violence – issues often deemed inappropriate to discuss publicly in conservative, Muslim-majority Pakistan.

“This group means so much to women in Pakistan who now have nowhere to go to,” Kanwal Ahmed told AFP.

“They didn’t even show which post it was,” said Ahmed, who was selected as a community leader by Facebook in 2018 thanks to the group’s success.

“It’s literally personal stories and anonymous posts.”

AFP has contacted Facebook for comment.

The group enabled members to offer each other informal help, ranging from legal advice to emotional support, on topics that might otherwise have drawn abuse if posted about publicly.

“The suspension of Soul Sisters Pakistan speaks to the arbitrary and non-transparent ways in which social media platforms operate and subtle ways in which community guidelines of these platforms can work against users in the Global South,” Shmyla Khan, a digital rights researcher in Lahore, told AFP.

Soul Sisters Pakistan has previously come under fire from critics who accused it of promoting divorce and “wild” behaviour challenging tradition and patriarchal norms.

More than 80 per cent of women in Pakistan have reported being harassed in public places, UN Women said in 2020, while around a quarter of women have experience physical or emotional violence from their husband or partner, according to a 2017-2018 health ministry survey.

“I feel lost without the group,” said Shiza, who only gave her first name. “This is where I used to go when life seemed too difficult to bear.”

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