The Feminist Principles of the Internet (FPI) are a set of principles that together provide a framework for digital rights through a critical gender and sexuality lens. To interlink, the feminist practise with the usage of the internet and digital platforms in the Nepali context, Body & Data translated/localized the existing resource in Khas Nepali that highlights a total of 17 principles under five themes of Access, Movement Building and Participation, Economy, Expression and Agency.

The FPI was first produced and disseminated in 2015 and can be accessed here.

While online violence is a systemic issue and needs broader interventions, the legal framework plays an important role in access to justice for the affected individual and communities. With the aim to focus on the relevant laws through an intersectional lens, state its positive and problematic aspects in the justice-seeking process for the survivors and find out ways in which the issue can be addressed, we organised a dissemination and discussion event on 11 March 2022.

The event was joined by different women rights groups, lawyers, journalists and individuals interested in digital rights issues including guest speakers Mohna Ansari and Babita Rai. During the event, Rita from Body & Data emphasized that bringing new laws & making the laws stronger is not the only solution as we need to constantly question our socio-cultural structure while at the same time amending laws through the lens of women, queer people and marginalized groups.

The printed copies are available at our office. Those who wish to grab them can contact us.

Feminist Tech Exchange (FTX) is a digital security workshop, that utilises a unique methodology for building capacities through understanding and sharing emerging digital-related issues while questioning the societal and political aspects of technology through a feminist lens. This February, we successfully completed the FTX through engagements with journalists, activists and artists. We explored different nuances of how digital safety and risks are associated with the work that we do. The workshop helped flourish our objective of having cross-movement collaborations with individuals working on different movements and professions, building collective knowledge and ownership in the field of digital rights in Nepal.

With the objective of discussing different aspects of digital rights such as freedom of expression online, movement building, privacy, access, etc, and in order to cover digital rights issues from an intersectional perspective, we organised a session on "A Feminist Analysis of Digital Rights in Nepal" at MozFest held on 10 March 2022. The event was invited by speakers Sarita Lamichhane, Rukshana Kapali, and Supriya Manandhar who shared their personal and professional experiences regarding digital rights, policies around digital rights and the role of digital platforms in movement-building in the context of Nepal. As the session was catered to English speaking audience, Body & Data plans to hold a similar session for the Nepali audience. Stay Tuned!

Held on 25 March 2022, 10 speakers from diverse backgrounds of art, activism, law and technology who contributed to putting the exhibition titled "Internet: Boundaries and Beyond" together for Kathmandu Triennial shared their experiences of the collaboration and how each piece brought together contributed to the larger discourse of utopian desires of creating a feminist internet space. Listen to the conversation here. The exhibition was coordinated by Deepti Silwal and Shubha Kayastha jointly along with the contribution of 30 individuals.

Privacy is not just a fundamental right of an individual but is also linked with personal autonomy of individuals and their right to live a dignified life. To raise awareness around privacy and its various aspects, we organised an online campaign #PrivacyandDataPrivacyCampaign2022 which kicked off on #DataPrivacyDay (28 January 2022). The campaign was an amalgamation of a series of short videos and an illustration. The video series is composed of 9 short clips from diverse individuals who shared their concept of privacy and data privacy, its concerns and how it affects their day-day lives. Speakers also critically analysed the Individual Privacy Act 2018 and its loopholes, through an intersectional lens. The month-long campaign ended with an illustration that depicted the virtual and lived realities experienced by the marginalized groups where their lives are surveilled and monitored restricting their right to privacy.