Youth

The Gen-Z-led uprising in Nepal did not erupt out of nowhere – it emerged from intersecting pressures that had been quietly building for decades. The first was a collective discontent with entrenched political corruption and nepotism – a system where bribery has long been normalised, taxpayer money is routinely embezzled into private pockets, and political leaders live lavish lives with little accountability. This simmering resentment found a visual language on TikTok, where young Nepalis began mirroring a trend seen across Asia: publicly calling out the children of politicians by exposing their designer clothes, luxury travel, and elite lifestyles.

The second trigger came when the Nepali government abruptly banned major social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and X, citing regulatory failures. Many citizens however, believed the ban was an attempt to suppress the growing anti-corruption discourse ahead of elections. These two forces collided on 8 September 2025 as tens of thousands took to the streets in protest. What began peacefully turned deadly by the afternoon, when police fired live rounds into crowds. In the days that followed, the total death toll rose to 76, with over 2,000 people injured.i

The public’s anger proved uncontainable over the next two days. Protesters set fire to businesses, the parliament building, and several politicians’ homes. Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned. The unrest eventually subsided only after the military assumed control, imposing a curfew of three days. Meanwhile, over 100,000 people, mainly from Gen Z, discussed and debated on Discord groups about potential interim leaders.ii

Sushila Karki, Nepal’s first female chief justice, emerged as the most popular choice due to her strong anti-corruption stance and was subsequently elected as interim Prime Minister through formal political channels, making her the first woman in Nepal’s history to hold the highest political office. Her rise was not just a response to crisis, but a reflection of how public trust, digital momentum, and political urgency began to align. These events can be explored further through three critical lenses: digital mobilisation, diaspora involvement, and gendered visibility.

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India’s democracy has grown in scale, but not quite in balance. Women today are active participants in elections, influencing outcomes in ways that were not as visible earlier. Yet their presence in legislative institutions continues to lag behind. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was meant to address this gap through reservation. But its linkage with delimitation brought in an element of delay, and perhaps even a degree of distrust, raising a basic question: does this present imbalance really need to wait for a redrawing of boundaries to be addressed?

The Representation Deficit: More than Just Numbers

The gap is easy to quantify, but harder to justify. In the 18th Lok Sabha (2024), only 74 women were elected – about 13.6% of the House. This is not dramatically different from where we were years ago. Progress has been slow, almost reluctant.

Globally, women make up over a quarter of national parliaments. In India, both at the Centre and in most state assemblies, we remain well below that mark. What makes this more puzzling is that women are no longer politically invisible as voters. They turn up, they decide, and increasingly, they influence electoral outcomes. Yet, they are still missing at the table where decisions are made.

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Working in feminist communications and advocacy, Verónica sees media not simply as a profession, but as a powerful political tool. The creation of Pícara emerged from a sense of exclusion and the need to confront violence, challenge stereotypes, and reshape public narratives around women and gender-diverse people. When Verónica and her classmates graduated with degrees in communication, traditional media environments felt unwelcoming and unsafe. “It was as if we didn’t belong there,” she recalls, and participation often meant exposure to “multiple forms of violence.” Rather than accepting those conditions, they decided to create a feminist communication space that could operate differently — one that would actively work to “break stereotypes and debunk some myths.”

What united the founders of Pícara was a shared belief that communication could drive social change. They connected with other feminist colleagues who viewed media as “a tool for transformation,” and from that collective vision, Pícara was born.

Central to Verónica’s work is the power of language. “We focus primarily on the use of language as a tool for transformation,” she explains, emphasizing how words shape how experiences are named, understood, and addressed. In Argentina, feminist movements have long fought to change the narratives surrounding violence against women. One of the most significant shifts was moving away from describing the murder of women as crimes of passion to naming them as femicides.

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UNITED NATIONS, New York – As technology reshapes our world, a staggering 85 per cent of women have witnessed online violence against other women, and 38 per cent have been personally affected. 

Yet despite its proliferation, technology-facilitated gender-based violence is still too often dismissed or inadequately addressed, by both policymakers and technology companies.

At the 59th Commission on Population and Development, held at the United Nations Headquarters this month, global leaders agreed there can be no digital inclusion without digital safety. As they convened to discuss how technology and research are influencing sustainable development, participants also examined the urgent need for digital spaces that are designed and governed with safety and human rights at their core.

A central concern is the rise of technology-facilitated gender-based violence – including cyberstalking, doxxing, digital surveillance and non-consensual sharing of intimate images – which disproportionately affects women, girls and other marginalized groups. 

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Dhaka: Bangladesh is witnessing a quiet yet devastating rise in the misuse of technology with rising incidents of women being targetted by superimposing their faces onto pornographic content.

Enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI), this practice, known as 'deepfake', primarily targets women, with consequences - such as social ruin, forced withdrawal from public life, and, in the worst cases, death - borne almost entirely by the victims, a report said.

According to a report in Bangladesh's leading newspaper 'Daily Sun', the victims come from diverse walks of life, including students, activists, professionals, politicians, actresses, and anonymous private individuals.

"In one of the most devastating cases documented in Bangladesh, a woman took her own life after an AI-edited video of her was shared with her family. The perpetrator understood precisely how Bangladeshi social structures work — family honour, community judgement, and the irreversibility of digital shame — and used a fabricated video to trigger all three at once. Her death was not an accident of technology. It was the intended result of its deliberate misuse," the report detailed.

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Today, on International Women’s Day, UNICEF reaffirms its commitment to advancing the rights of every girl – and ensuring that girls can thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Around the globe, progress toward gender equality remains uneven. Despite decades of advancement, harmful social norms and discriminatory practices continue to limit the opportunities of millions of girls. As societies become more connected through technology, these inequalities are not only reflected online – they are often amplified in digital spaces.

Maldives is among the most digitally connected societies in the South Asia region. With internet access reaching the vast majority of the population and social media widely used across islands and generations, digital platforms have become an integral part of daily life, shaping how young people learn, communicate, and participate in society.

For girls, these platforms offer powerful opportunities to learn new skills, access information, and raise their voices. Yet the same spaces can also expose girls to new and evolving forms of harm.

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