Making attention-capturing videos on discrimination against Shia Muslims, Ahmedi killings and repressive Pakistani gender norms have helped me amass over 80,000 views across Instagram and Tiktok. Social media is powerful. When you have a society, laws and culture that are repressive to certain communities’ basic needs, it becomes the perfect retreat.

Growing up during a period of intense censorship and repression in Pakistan had pushed the possibility of discussing anything concerning religious, sexual and gender minorities in Pakistan to the back of my head. My time at Aitchison College wasn’t very helpful either. At the college only specific identities – that espoused masculinity and wealth – were socially acceptable, while the rest were just a reason to bully or ostracize fellow students. Studying abroad gave me the opportunity to reorient and reimagine the ingrained fears in my brain into potential topics for discussion. The process of unlearning my internalized fears and my long-standing love for performance, culminated in the use of Instagram and Tiktok. These became the two platforms where I could leverage my voice and privilege to discuss issues I was passionate about.

Technology and the internet are becoming more accessible to people from communities and areas some of us never get to learn about in schools. If you have a mobile phone and an internet, moving away from rigid television schedules – that only showcase light-skinned drama actors or television hosts obsessed with weddings – becomes extremely appealing. You have the internet at your disposal, where you can learn about, watch and create content that speaks to you personally. Social media has created the potential for broadening and diversifying discourse. While on television you may hear a corrupt politician bragging about unfounded policy success in rural Punjab, you can now watch a video on Youtube or Tiktok where individuals from those communities give you a completely different and direct lens of the actual reality on-ground.

My decision specifically to use Tiktok came after months of viewing and following influencers from backgrounds I had never seen represented properly on Pakistani television. The sidelined groups included the trans-community, ethnic minorities and working-class men and women. This specific platform was setting a precedent for diversity and inclusion on social media. This was attractive to me as a member of minority backgrounds myself. The enhanced comfort users from underrepresented backgrounds feel on the platform has made space for individuals to raise their voices against injustice more easily.

The endless variety of sounds, filters and editing tools reinforced my decision to use this platform. I could easily envision myself taking a break between my heavy course load in online-school to make a fifteen second video dancing to trending songs to catch my audience’s attention. I intended on then using that attention to make them read a piece of text controversially advocating for Ahmedis, Shias and the LGBTQ+ community.

If you know what you want to say, who you care about and have the privilege and courage to speak up against injustice, social media is definitely the most convenient tool a Pakistani can have to advocate for equity and inclusion. I’ve had countless Shias, Ahmedis and members of the LGBTQ+ community reach out to me to express their appreciation for my content and the power it holds in a society where it feels like everyone is constantly criticising every statement you make. My content speaks to certain groups of people. They relate to what I talk about and feel empowered through it, because they can finally see themselves, or their thoughts, being represented on the screens they use every day.

The writer is a student at the Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and a content creator on Tiktok.