April 24, 2026
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
She went to cover the US–Iran peace talks. Within hours, she became the story. On April 11, when local and foreign journalists gathered together in Islamabad to report on the US-Iran Peace talks, instead of finding related stories going viral, anchorperson for GTV, Gharidah Farooqi, found her own pictures going viral.
Farooqi has not been a stranger to online harassment. She has often been criticized for various things – and this time it was her clothes.
On the day of the peace talks in the capital city, Farooqi had been dressed in a green coloured co-ord set – something that is acceptable as workplace clothing. But after someone posted a photo of hers on social media, the conversation shifted away from work itself to her choice of clothing. While some comments were focused on fashion and presentation, the conversation soon escalated into widespread commentary on her appearance.
There were humorous comments, somewhat critical of her clothing but mostly harmless. Thre were others who criticised her clothing sense in inappropriate terms, and some of the others defended her, and requested others to see her work rather than her clothes.
But slowly a more hateful layer surfaced. No longer was this just “random trolling,” it was a very specific, very targeted harassment, some would say tied directly to the timing of the Iran–US talks. These comments and discussions would go on to include sexual slurs, abusive words and others. Many users also called her outfit “inappropriate” and “unprofessional”, comparing her to a veiled Iranian journalist, framing it as a morality contrast. Comments explicitly linked her clothing to the “decline” of society.
The issued turned uglier when morphed images of her began circulating.
AI-generated explicit videos using her likeness were shared online.
This marked a shift from plain harassment to tech-facilitated gendr based violence (TFGBV), and Gharidah had faced it many times before. This time though there were laws to protect her.
Finally on April 24 she announced on X that she had filed a complaint with the NCCIA and that they were supporting her tremendously. “One of the perpetrators have been caught- he is a resident from Chiniot,” she told Voicepk. “They are also carrying multiple raids and trying to locate and nab as many as possible.”
But what was it that triggered this latest wave of harassment over her clothing?
“Firstly I always try and sensitize everyone that this is not exactly ‘trolling’ – this is not harmless – this was in fact a harmful crime in the eyes of the law. When it happened on April 11, I was at the Jinnah Convention Center to cover the peace talks like the dozens of other local and foreign journalists there. During that time, while I was interviewing Sardar Masood Khan, someone took a photo of me from the back – an improper and private angle, they edited it, and then captioned it wrongly,” she said. “Then after that it became viral. People began sharing it and it was a planned and coordinated attack.
This is NOT criticism neither on attire. A picture taken without my consent from a private angle, then MORPHED, and turned into a planned smear vile campaign of harassment. Not the first time against me, A picture taken without my consent from a private angle, then MORPHED, and… https://t.co/lCX1Yubuqw
— Gharidah Farooqi (T.I.) (@GFarooqi) April 13, 2026
AI and deep fake was used in some of the pictures that were shared. Actress Mishi Khan, who is known to be an avid supporter of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and also for her vicious verbal attacks on others through videos, also made a video on this issue and deeply criticized Ghareeda. There were people doing this who had planned it while the general public had also joined in, because of course how could they resist when a woman is the target?”
Ghareeda says she kept waiting for the comments to taper down and in the meantime quietly continued to monitor them. “In about five days I had collected so much evidence that I was able to present it in front of the NCCIA and file a complaint,” she said. “In the past it was the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing that used to deal with this kind of thing but now its NCCIA. It is not th first time I have filed a complaint. I have around two dozen applications pending with the FIA, out of which only four or five had been resolved. But this time I hope they will be responding positively to me as a complainant.”
She said that in the usual circumstances they just make one or two arrests and then forget about it.
“But this time it seems they are bent upon nabbing the main people. They have found out that some of the messages came from locations within Pakistan – some of them out of station, but some of them were from abroad. It is possible that no action can be taken against them.”
Hashtags, and similar type of tweets sent in the same manner, with the same words are some highlights that can be used to identify whether an incident of TBGBV was a campaign or an incidence of random tweets. “Whether its simply someone swearing at you for something, or its a proper planned and coordinated campaign – because in the latter instance you can see a pattern and there are posts across social media platforms in thousands.”
This kind of harassment must take its mental toll on anyone, but since women and especially women journalists are targeted more viciously, including sexually, sometimes it becomes traumatic.
“It’s not like I have gotten used to it just because I know how to handle it,” she said. “It is true that I have strong nerves for such things, and they have never perturbed me – in fact even the first time it happened I was not worried. But I was very angry. This was in 2011. But I had to tolerate his abuse because till 2015 there was no law. After the law came regarding digital violence in 2015, I was in fact the first female journalists to actually file complaints.”
But she said even for those women journalists who can cope with it personally, there are sometimes points in time when it becomes too much. “Your family, including your extended family ask you questions. Your friends as you questions. It affects your mental health and well being at some point or the other.”
However she says her own media organization has been behind her during this time, as it has a strong and efficient anti-harassment policy. “They would have also filed a case on my behalf if i had askd them to, but since i was the one who had to appear I did it,” she said. “Even before I had joined this organization, they had taken srict action against some harassment cases. Usually media organization tend to support you if it is related to your work.”
Supported by women journalists
The action taken by Gharidah was also widely supported by female journalists.
One of the journalists recognized the strategy of how Gharidah stayed silent while collecting evidence and said that it had worked well.
“If she had taken immediate action then the accused would have deleted their original posts, and there would have been no proof,” she said. “But she remained silent and let them leave their ‘prints’ and eventually they are now getting arrested for what they have done. The NCCIA taking action is a pathway for all the females, and now the involved people will think before passing any violent comments online.”
Another commented, “They should be made an example of and not forgiven and forgotten like Dr. Umar Adil, who even after everything he said continues to air his narratives from his page.”
Others encouraged her by saying it was important not just at a personal level to file complaints and see to it that those accused are nabbed, but should serve as a warning to others too.
A senior woman journalist while applauding the action taken by Gharidah added, “Everyone has the right to wear whatever clothes they want. But to try to make it a cultural or moral standpoint, and start to twist the situation – is that appropriate?”
This is not the first time a woman journalist has faced online harassment while doing her job. In 2020, more than two dozen women journalists came forward to share their experiences of severe online abuse before the Human Rights Committee of Pakistan’s National Assembly, speaking for nearly four hours in largely unfiltered testimonies. The hearing followed a rare show of solidarity, with women journalists issuing a joint letter on August 12 calling for government action against digital harassment.
A 2019 report by Media Matters for Democracy found that virtually all women journalists in Pakistan experience some form of online violence. According to the report, 95 percent said such abuse affects their professional choices, while 77 percent admitted to self-censorship as a coping mechanism. Despite often being dismissed, this abuse has serious consequences—105 out of 110 respondents said it negatively impacts their mental health.
More recent research in 2026 reinforces that such harassment is not incidental but structural, shaped by gender norms, political polarisation, and weak institutional protections. The study also found that women journalists subjected to online abuse frequently experience insomnia, self-doubt, isolation, and emotional exhaustion.
The core issue isn’t really the clothes. It is the attempt to control women in public spaces. It shows how quickly online mobs derail serious discourse on social media and how digital abuse (now amplified by AI) is being used to target women journalists in particular.