Women educated on countering harassment

LAHORE : A five-day training workshop on cyber harassment against women concluded at Lahore College for Women University (LCWU), here on Friday.

LCWU Vice-Chancellor Dr Bushra Mirza was the chief guest of the concluding session. Riphah International University (RIU), which organised the workshop, Assistant Professor Dr Sajjad conducted the session and imparted training to women, including engineers, faculty members and students.

Dr Sajjad told the participants the network access control (NAC) should be used on academic campuses and enterprises to control illegitimate users' access to the organisations' network.

He said the objective of the initiative was to train women network engineers of Pakistan in network security with a view to empower them to avail the best job opportunities in the market, adding that this project was funded by European Union, Asi@connect and TEIN Corporation Centre to educate women in Pakistan about cyber harassment.

The speaker said cyber bullying or cyber harassment, which happened online with women and children, needed appropriate response, requiring different approaches to support the victims being bullied.

They need to be educated about extending cooperation to the departments concerned to initiate legal action against the bully.

Pointing out the effects of cyber bullying, the trainer said that the act caused depression, isolation, illness, anger, low self-esteem and suicide tendencies among the victims, adding that it was recommended to block the bully, save the evidence, share the incident with trusted person and never reply the attackers. LCWU Vice Chancellor Dr Bushra Mirza appreciated the efforts of the RIU, European Union and TIEN corporation centre to educate the female students, faculty members and other staff about cyber harassment. She said use of internet had increased during coronavirus pandemic, adding that students using the internet for their studies and other activities should be educated about its demerits.