enior parliamentary leaders, global experts and digital rights advocates came together at the historic Sindh Assembly building last week for the Seventh CPA Asia Regional Conference. The theme, Future Parliaments: Redefining Democracy through Trust, Inclusion, Innovation and Peace—was ambitious. The subtext was urgent.

As over 150 speakers and parliamentarians from 17 state assemblies across Asia and South-East Asia gathered, the conversation shifted from traditional power to internet. The centerpiece was a session on what many described as a civilisational diagnostic: Gender, Tech and Trust: Protecting Women Leaders from Online Violence in Digital Manipulation.

The session opened with a stark paradox. Jane Roscoe, a board member of the British Council Global and vice-chancellor of the University of Creative Arts in the UK, stood before a room noticeably populated by women leaders. She began with a celebration that quickly turned into a caution.

“Yesterday, as I sat with all of you through the first day of the conference, I was really happy and very impressed to see so many women in the room,” Roscoe said. “It is so important to have role models in parliament and in government. We are a big part of society, so your representation is incredibly important.”

Her tone changed as she addressed the ‘invisible’ barrier preventing more women from entering civic life. She spoke of a culture where violence is often presented as a “professional tax.”

“Many female politicians and councillors experience one or more forms of violence in their role. This may take the form of verbal abuse, online trolling, stalking and so on,” she said.

Roscoe cited the emotional toll on leaders like former New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, who recently spoke on the “casual sexism” that impacted her daily practice as a leader.

The tragedy, Roscoe said, was that the very traits of modern leadership—openness and accessibility—are being used as vulnerabilities. “Technology has made it much easier to effectively troll our female politicians. In the UK, research found that 60 per cent of women in parliamentary roles had experienced hate speech, disinformation and psychological discomfort.”

Her message to the men in the room was a call for ally-ship.

“To my male colleagues, you also have a role to play here. It’s your ally-ship that will help us move this forward... calling out other people’s behaviour and supporting the women around you.”

While Roscoe focused on the cultural shift, Jamshed M Qazi, the UN Women country representative in Pakistan, brought a “data-heavy” indictment of the current technological landscape. With 27 years of experience in gender equality, Qazi did not mince words. This is a “democratic emergency,” he said.

“Gender, technology and trust are not separate policy domains,” Qazi declared. “They are the interconnected architecture upon which 21st-Century democracy will either stand or fall.”

Qazi also presented a breakdown of what he called the infrastructure of intimidation:

70 pc of women human rights defenders report experiencing online violence as a “routine feature” of their lives.

42 pc of women journalists report that online abuse has escalated into real-world physical harm or stalking. The figure has more than doubled since 2020.

1.8 billion women and girls worldwide currently live without any legal protection from cyber harassment.

“Technology is not neutral,” Qazi warned. “Technology amplifies power; when power is unequal, technology becomes a force multiplier of inequality.”

He said generative AI was the new frontier of abuse. Up to 95 percent of online deep-fakes, he said, were non-consensual pornographic images; 99 percent of those targeted women. This content is then fed into an ecosystem of extreme misogyny that is algorithmically promoted to millions of people.

An IPU study from 2025 found that 60 percent of women parliamentarians in the Asia-Pacific region had been targeted by image-based abuse—the highest rate globally.

Asmaa Ehtesham-ul Haq, an MPA from the Punjab and chairperson of the Women Development Committee, said: “Protecting women is not special treatment; it is about fairness, safety and equal opportunity.” She highlighted the shift from physical to digital space violence. “These attacks are designed to silence the target... false allegations and the use of deep-fake technology… spread misinformation.”

She also presented a roadmap for institutional response, mentioning the Virtual Women Police Station in the Punjab—a digital channel for reporting harassment via live chat and video calls, bypassing the need for physical visits to police stations which could be intimidating or inaccessible.

Dr Fauzia, a parliamentarian representing the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, reinforced the battlefield narrative. “Harassment does not knock on the doors; it echoes in our phones,” she said. “Character assassination no longer needs proof; it needs clicks. This is not free speech; this is a digital violation.

“The goal is not criticism. The goal is silence. When women withdraw from digital space, public debate shrinks. When abuse becomes normal, trust in democracy collapses.”

MNA Shazia Atta Mari of the Peoples Partyt recounted a coordinated campaign alleging that a huge amount of money had been recovered from her home. “There was no raid, no investigation, no truth—only a lie presented as fact and amplified relentlessly by anonymous accounts,” Mari said.

She said while some people who relayed the message issued apologies, the real perpetrators remained hidden behind the anonymity afforded by global platforms.

“Our systems were not designed for the speed and scale of digital harm. Women are asked to document abuse, prove intent and wait while the harassment continues in real-time,” she said.

“Women do not owe silence to anyone. We belong in parliament, we belong in leadership and we will not be driven by anonymous abuse masquerading as free speech,” she concluded.

The conference demanded a structural overhaul. Jamshed Qazi and the participating parliamentarians outlined five critical actions for the Parliaments of the Future:

1) Legislative clarity: explicitly criminalising doxing, deep-fakes and AI-generated sexual abuse; 2) Platform accountability: ending the “failed self-regulation.” Platforms must moderate in local languages and face penalties for failure to protect public figures;

3) Resourcing the response: Funding specialised cyber-crime units and providing rapid-response legal aid for women facing online attacks;

4) Modeling the standard: Adopting codes of conduct for online discourse within parliaments with zero tolerance for sexist content;

5) Amplifying voices: Creating platforms that focus on women’s expertise and strategy, not just their status as targets of abuse.

During the inaugural and plenary sessions, the participants also held in-depth discussions on a range of contemporary challenges facing democratic systems. These included the strengthening of democratic institutions, promotion of parliamentary dialogue and reconciliation, restoration of public trust, transparency and inclusion in governance, the impact of artificial intelligence, environmental threats and prospects for regional peace.

Sindh Assembly Speaker Syed Awais Qadir Shah highlighted Sindh’s rich historical, cultural and democratic identity, describing the province as a cradle of ancient civilisation. He expressed alarm over on-going conflicts, climate change, poverty, rising extremism and the complex challenges posed by modern technology. He stressed that sustained dialogue, stronger parliamentary cooperation and adherence to democratic values were essential to achieving peace and sustainable development.

The writer is a freelance journalist and a researcher. Her X handle: @FehmidaRiaz