Misogynistic Hate Speech against Female Politicians on New Media in Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan has been observed considerable rise in women’s political representation similar to other nations, but along with this growing rate of misogynistic attacks have also been noticed. Under the umbrella of anonymity, social values of society constantly dishonoured, prominent political names Maryam Nawaz, Uzma Bukhari, Shiren Mazari, Hina Rabani Khar, Sherry Rehman, and others have faced hate speech, digital abuse that is irrelevant to their political performances. Such moral policing reflects unease of society to see women in leadership roles and holding authority in their hands.

New media platforms have important and central space for political discourse in Pakistan’s changing digital landscape. While on one side digital advancement paving the way for global political communication, on other hand technology has led to increase digital abuse and hate speech particularly targeting women in online space. Digital spaces like YouTube, Twitter/ X, Instagram, tiktok, Facebook, and many other platforms become known as powerful tools of technology, at present all traditional media shifted to digital platforms according to the requirement of time. This study “Misogynistic hate speech against female politicians on new media in Pakistan” examines how online misogyny affects its interconnected aspects including perceived political authenticity, political affiliation, political participation, and public shaming. Four hypotheses were created to check the relationship of misogynistic behaviour with interconnected features. The study is descriptive nature study, quantitative research design used for data collection and survey questionnaire disseminated among 220 female political representatives who served at district, divisional, provincial and national level through convenient sampling technique. This research study aims to analyse and understand the perception of female politicians because these are the one who directly encountered misogyny on new media platforms. This study emphasizes how misogyny structured both public narratives and victim’s attitude through digital spaces.