Name: Online blasphemy smear campaign threatens Pakistan’s Women’s Day marchers
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Online blasphemy smear campaign threatens Pakistan’s Women’s Day marchers

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Women's rights campaigners in Pakistan say their lives have been put in danger after opponents doctored footage of a protest march and made false claims to portray feminists raising blasphemous slogans.The fake video has been widely shared on social media in a country where an accusation of blasphemy is often an open incitement to violence or even murder.Organisers of the march said the video and other false claims had provoked a string of death threats.in the nation of more than 220 million, as placard bearing feminists draw the ire of religious and social conservatives.Pakistan's human rights commission said the march had come under attack from a “deliberate, vicious campaign”.“Once again, allegations of blasphemy have been weaponised, this time against women who bravely drew attention to the harassment and sexual assault they had experienced. This is not just repugnant, it is an incitement to violence,” a statement said.Blasphemy can end in a death sentence under Pakistan's laws, but the charge is so incendiary that those accused can often face vigilante mob justice. Campaigners say the accusation is used to settle scores and silence liberal voices.Religious protesters gathered in Islamabad on Friday demanding legal action against the march organisers.“We all [feel under threat] at this point,” one volunteer behind the march told the Telegraph. “But we are a collective and in it together so that helps us a lot.”In previous marches, the sight of women carrying placards with slogans such as “my body, my choice” has provoked the fury of religious groups while generating endless debate in newspapers and talk shows. Opponents of the march claim it is foreign funded and is trying to impose vulgar Western values on Pakistan.This year's march passed of relatively quietly until the doctored clip emerged online. Organisers said, the sound had been altered in the clip to suggest the participants in Karachi were chanting blasphemous slogans.Another photo was shared by a politician and shown on television with the false claim that women were waving a French flag –&nbsp;when it was actually the banner of a Pakistani feminist organisation.Anti-France sentiments remain rife in Pakistan after French President Emmanuel Macron defended the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed - a red line for many Muslims.The march said it was the victim of a “malicious campaign” that had “has caused irreparable harm to individuals and the movement”.“The campaign against the feminist movement and women's march is extremely dangerous and predicated on an organised campaign of disinformation designed to malign and mislead,” a statement said. In 2011, a provincial governor was assassinated by his bodyguard for criticising Pakistan's blasphemy laws and for supporting a local Christian woman who had been sentenced to death a year earlier for blasphemy.The woman, Asia Bibi, was in jail until 2019 when she was released and allowed to leave for Canada.Protect yourself and your family by learning more about&nbsp;Related TopicsAdvertisementRelated TopicsWe rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism.We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.Thank you for your support.Need help?Visit ourpage.Close

Women's rights campaigners in Pakistan say their lives have been put in danger after opponents doctored footage of a protest march and made false claims to portray feminists raising blasphemous slogans.The fake video has been widely shared on social media in a country where an accusation of blasphemy is often an open incitement to violence or even murder.Organisers of the march said the video and other false claims had provoked a string of death threats.in the nation of more than 220 million, as placard bearing feminists draw the ire of religious and social conservatives.Pakistan's human...

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Online blasphemy smear campaign threatens Pakistan’s Women’s Day marchers

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