I'm a freelance journalist with bylines in VICE, HUCK, Guardian and more. I have experience writing on minority politics, activism, and gender issues.
Global Social Media Bans Will Hurt Vulnerable Communities
In early January, Meta put out a sudden and unexpected announcement that the platform would be ending its third-party fact checking model in the US, saying that their approach to manage content on their platforms had “gone too far.” Instead, Meta will now be moving to a Community Notes m...
As Long as Social Media Is Around, Can We Really Break Free of Overconsumption?
Social media influences our real-life consumption. From fashion trends to Stanley cups, our so-called “sustainable” buying choices have become a cause of concern in a world where overconsumption seems to be rising exponentially.
A study published by the Journal of Modern Science last year showed that 80 percent of consumers’ buying decisions stemmed from online influences and social media impulse buys that can cost the average consumer up to a massive $754 a year. In a hyper-capitalist world ...
Generative AI And Deepfakes: Is There A Way Forward?
Over the last couple of months, advertisements of deepfake kissing apps have started getting frequent on social media platforms. These apps boast about being easy to use, and claim to enable you to “kiss anyone you want - no consent required,” in just about a matter of minutes.
This is part of a larger trend of Generative AI apps that enable creating sexualised and intimate content of people without their consent. Apps to “nudify” anyone have also been on the rise leading to the increase in sextortion related cases
The People vs Anglocentrism
Last week, I reached out to someone on Whatsapp to schedule an interview. We ended up chatting in Urdu – the actual Urdu script, not Roman Urdu – and I realised just how unfamiliar I am typing in my native script.
I guess it’s not surprising. As so much of our phones and interfaces are in English, I rarely use Urdu online. But as my grandmother would say: these phones have ruined everything. In this case, she’s not completely wrong.
I’m Anmol Irfan, a Pakistani journalist and author of the ei...
How International Adoption Is Failing Children
Over nine months into the violence that has been ransacking the lives of Palestinians, efforts to help are coming from all corners of the globe. As news outlets and social media feeds are flooded with endless images of violence against children, some in the Global North have expressed a desire to adopt Palestinian children to give them a chance at a better life.
This isn’t the first time that citizens in the Global North have wanted to adopt children from a specific crisis zone. In the late 1...
Reclaiming Heritage: The Global Push for Repatriation of Looted Artifacts
Earlier this year, Iraq opened three new galleries in the Basra Museum to display artifacts recently returned from the United States and other countries. Many of these objects had been looted and smuggled out of Iraq following the 2003 US invasion. Over two decades later, calls to repatriate these stolen objects were finally met with success, but not without significant effort.
Across the world, there has been an increased push over the last five years to demand the return of looted artifacts...
Why Women Fight the Algorithm?
Hana*, a Karachi-based writer, was sitting with her brother watching reels with him as he scrolled through Instagram when she realised that more than a few videos were focused on misogynistic jokes and a number of Andrew Tate clips popped up. Each time, her brother scrolled away, and she shared that as far as her own interactions with him went, he’d never expressed any support or liking towards this kind of misogynistic red-pill content which is often associated with highly controversial or m...
Cooled Prospects for Gender Justice from COP29
For years, gender activists have been trying to draw attention to the disproportionate ways in which the climate crisis has been affecting women and girls. Studies show that by 2050, climate change may push 158 million more women and girls into poverty, which is 16 million more women
Anmol Irfan
Cooled Prospects for Gender Justice from COP29
For years, gender activists have been trying to draw attention to the disproportionate ways in which the climate crisis has been affecting women and girls. Studies show that by 2050, climate change may push 158 million more women and girls into poverty, which is 16 million more women and girls at risk than men and boys at the same level. For gender activists, there were small victories at this year’s United Nations COP29 climate change conference...
Pakistani Women’s Hopes of Breaking Silence and of Creating Discourse Online
When 30-year-old Mahnoor Lodhi, who lives in Karachi and is a content creator by profession, was in university, a stalker copied her photos from her personal social media profiles and posted them publicly with her phone number and captions like ‘professional whore’. She says, “Things spiralled out of control. I would get calls, I would get harassed a lot. It made me go offline for a while.”
Mahnoor wanted to create her blog for a while at the time, but this incident rattled her and kept her a...
I don’t want to be a Taylor Swift fan anymore
Over the last five months, there’s been a line drawn within the world of celebrities. A line that’s done little on the ground to be honest, but one that’s there nonetheless.
Since 7th October, most celebrities across the world have used their platforms to speak out regarding the violence in Palestine. Most have taken to what they call ‘neutral’ statements, like Rihanna, clearly playing to both sides, condemning violence without speaking the perpetrators’ name, with some like Gal Gadot openly ...
Aerial fitness influencers inspiring body positivity
Aerial fitness influencers inspiring body positivity
Feb 8
social mediawell-beingwellnesspole dancingaerialinfluencersfitnessmental healthexercisebody imageself loveconfidencemovementhealth
Aurat March Message marches into lives and homes
As Pakistan's Women's March recieves new attention, Anmol Irfan explores how feminist movements have been silenced throughout the countries history
Women in the film industry: a take on the 2024 Oscar nominations
When the Oscar nominations were announced in late January, they led to a buzz online. Usually that’s pretty standard every year but this time things seemed a little bit different.
Along with the usual discussions and opinions being shared on who should and shouldn’t have been nominated, a lot of Oscar “discourse” focused on the fact that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig weren’t nominated for Best Actress and Best Director respectively.
Many viewers felt that Robbie and Gerwig had been shunned, ...
4 Ways Leaders Can Better Support Muslims Observing Ramadan
For those fasting in particular, the lack of sleep and odd eating hours can become strenuous when coupled with full-time work routines. For some Muslims, the practice can also feel particularly isolating—especially if you feel a pressure to have to overexplain or justify what you’re doing.