We also distilled our report into 2 animated explainers about

• The Colonial History Of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws

• The Parliamentary Sessions Of 1986

which uncover th e factually In correct Juridical Foundations Of The Law

Research Mobilization

In 2021 amidst pressure from the EU to amend the blasphemy laws or have our GSP+ status

revoked, we were consulted by the Ministry of Human Rights to whom we presented

Recommendations For Viable Solutions To Curbing Misuse Of The Blasphemy Laws,

beginning with including intent and discretionary punishments to the law.

Our most radical and successful attempt at shifting the discourse around love o f

the Prophet has been Arafat Mazhar’s Episode On Pakistan’s Leading Podcast

which also laid out attainable goals for the general public to counter blasphemy

violence in Pakistan.

We also mobilized our research on case laws and islamic legal tradition to develop A Lawyers Manual for Lawyers handling blasphemy cases in Pakistan

We made 2 animated films which advocate to abolish The Death Penalty

In Pakistan in collaboration with JPP.

Publications

Arafat Mazhar also published his paper, Plurality, Dissent and Hegemony: The Story Behind Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law, in Bloomsbury ’s 2021 anthology, Freedom of Expression i n Islam: Challenging Apostasy and Blasphemy Laws, which also included works from Dr. Keci a Ali and Dr. Khalid Masud. A valuable resource for scholars, activists and policy makers in Muslim countries struggling with blasphemy and apostasy laws.

Competing Notions of Citizenship:

We’ve done multiple consultations with the EU which bring together different stakeholders like the state and representative s from the religious and the human rights communities and present Recommendations For Effective Solutions To Sectarian And Religious Issues That Disproportionately Affect Minorities In Pakistan. We also wrote a Paper and produced a Video Essay for the EU which traces the failure of human rights discourse to the presence o f contesting notions of citizenship in public imagination in Pakistan and suggests ways to develop an indigenous idea of equal citizenship.

We’ve done extensive work on interfaith harmony. We collaborated with madrassa students and religious representative s of different sects to produce audio books and Animations which highlight Instances Of Tolerance from within the Islamic tradition.

We released this work on our platform, Aashiqan-e-Rasool - an online counter-narrative intervention on religious issues, specifically those that result in communal violence - alongwith

audio-visual experiments designed to expand public imagination and understanding of

Ishq-e-Rasool .

Interfaith Harmony

Two Finger Test:

Engage’s Research and Awareness videos were instrumental in moving the Lahore High Court to ban the 2 finger test for survivors of sexual violence in

Since 2018, Shehri Pakistan has been Meta’s official trusted partner, Reporting And Removing Thousands Of Units Of Dangerous Online Speech .

Sectarian Hate Speech:

We’ve researched anti-Shia literature to study The Typology Of Hatred And Violence Directed Towards Minorities In Pakistan. We utilise this to give policy recommendations to Meta to create frameworks for flagging content that endangers communities through incitement or

hate speech.

Anti Ahmadi Hate Speech:

We authored a comprehensive report in

collaboration with the British High Commission

documenting The Genealogy Of Anti-ahmadi

Hate-speech In Pakistan, tracing the history of

the persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, its

current physical, spatial and psychological manifestations in urban centres today, as well as projections about how this dehumanisation project could, either through legislative power or public sentiment, impact Ahmadi lives.

We are also actively involved in running a hate speech monitoring cell which flags content

on Facebook.

02. HATE SPEECH MONITORING

Hate Speech monitoring and Research

Hate Speech Monitoring And Research

We designed an in-depth intervention against online hate speech in partnership with UNESCO which included

1 ) 6 Animations Around Themes Of Respecting Diversity, Freedom Of Expression; Journalistic Work, Right Of Information And On Hate Speech;

2 ) Findings From Our Study Were Then Summarized Into Our Policy Paper, “Inspiring Violence: Hate Speech Against Religious Minorities And Women On Pakistani Social Media” For Social Media Platforms;

Anti Ahmadi Hate Speech:

3 ) Findings Were Shared In Capacity-building Exercises Across Universities In Pakistan With The Objective Of Teaching Students In Journalism-related Degrees What Constitutes Online Hate Speech And How They Can Tackle It.

In 2017, we launched our Urdu citizenship education platform, Shehri Pakistan, now nearly a million followers strong, where we produce educational resources to increase legal and constitutional literacy, promote rights and empower citizens, specifically vulnerable communities. Shehri Pakistan’s animations have been viewed a total of 51 million times and have half a million shares.

03.CIVIC LITERACY& FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Civic Literacy & Fundamental Rights(CONTENT, OUTREACH, ADVOCACY)

We also produced one of the first ever Urdu campaigns on #MeToo and Equal pay in Pakistan.

At Shehri, we produced 100+ animations, 150+ explainers and over 300 poster campaigns on right to Information, Movement, Health , Education, And Property, Right To Clean Water And Air, The Importance Of Freedom Of Expression And Protest, The Right To Access To Public Spaces And Safeguarding From Discrimination At Work. We’ve comprehensively broken down what the Right To Fair Trial guarantees everyindividual in an attempt to improve access to justice for all, we’ve covered Right To Divorce as a legal and Islamic matter, our Workers Rights Campaign not only outlined protections for workers but also mobilized support around The Issue Of Child And Bonded Labour In Pakistan. Last year during the smog crisis in Pakistan, we also released an animation on Smog Awareness.

Fundamental Rights and Civic Education:

We produce d a h i g h q u a l i t y videocast as we l l a s d e t a i l e d Poster Series which break

down local government structure s fo r a l l p rovince s a n d t h e d i f ference funct i o n s o f

t h e Judiciary, L e g i s lature And Executive Branches Of Governance.

We went beyond animations and

experimented with other forms

o f a u d i o - v i s u a l resource s t o

cu l t i v a t e c i v i c and democr a t i c

values. We made a Board Game

on separation of powe r s for

ch i l d re n , i n t e r a ct i ve games for

young adults which i n culcate

cr i t i cal thinking and empathy, o r

t h rough Songs and i l lustrated

books for children o n v a lues

of tolerance and dive r s i t y.

We created

We went beyond animations and

experimented with other forms

o f a u d i o - v i s u a l resource s t o

cu l t i v a t e c i v i c and democr a t i c

values. We made a Board Game

on separation of powe r s for

ch i l d re n , i n t e r a ct i ve games for

young adults which i n culcate

cr i t i cal thinking and empathy, o r

t h rough Songs and i l lustrated

books for children o n v a lues

of tolerance and dive r s i t y.

We created the f i r s t o f i t s k i n d U rdu and English

civics textbook i n Pakistan after studying leading

ci v i c cu r r i cu la around the world which focuses on

bu i l d i n g c i v i c vocabu lary, o n t e a ching democr a t i c

princi p l e s , fundamental rights and value educa t i o n ,

a n d i s i n c lusive i n i t s v i s u a l representations and

story t e l l ing.

We tested our ci v ics t extbook in an extensive Outreach Program amongst

6 underprivileged schools i n S a rgodha as we l l a s i n s c h o o ls from the TCF

and Akhuwat Foundation network. Led by team members with experience i n

pedagogy, our program supplemented learning object i ves with act i v i t i e s ,

p lays, songs and Shehri’s animations.

We went beyond animations and

experimented with other forms

o f a u d i o - v i s u a l resource s t o

cu l t i v a t e c i v i c and democr a t i c

values. We made a Board Game

on separation of powe r s for

ch i l d re n , i n t e r a ct i ve games for

young adults which i n culcate

cr i t i cal thinking and empathy, o r

t h rough Songs and i l lustrated

books for children o n v a lues

of tolerance and dive r s i t y.

We created the f i r s t o f i t s k i n d U rdu and English

civics textbook i n Pakistan after studying leading

ci v i c cu r r i cu la around the world which focuses on

bu i l d i n g c i v i c vocabu lary, o n t e a ching democr a t i c

princi p l e s , fundamental rights and value educa t i o n ,

a n d i s i n c lusive i n i t s v i s u a l representations and

story t e l l ing.