Digital Spaces, Structural Inequalities: Rethinking TFGBV in South Asia’s Legal and Socio-Cultural Context

Abstract

This article explores the growing prevalence of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in South Asia within the context of rapid digital expansion and persistent structural inequalities. While increased internet penetration across Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka has enabled greater access to information, freedom of expression, and economic participation, it has simultaneously amplified gendered forms of harm in digital spaces. Manifestations of TFGBV, including cyberstalking, doxxing, image-based abuse, and online sexual harassment, reflects a spillover of entrenched patriarchal violence into How to Cite this Article digital spaces rather than a completely new phenomenon. Adopting a triangulated qualitative methodology, the study combines doctrinal legal analysis with a comparative and socio-legal approach to assess the adequacy of legal frameworks and their enforcement mechanisms. The findings suggest that legal responses across the region remain fragmented, morality-driven, and heavily reliant on criminalization, often failing to address the consent-based, intersectional, and rapidly evolving nature of digital harms. Legal ambiguities, weak enforcement mechanisms, and limited institutional capacity further widen the gap between formal protections and the lived realities of survivors.The article further underscores how socio-cultural barriers, including victim-blaming attitudes, honor-based social norms, and unequal access to digital technologies, restrict reporting and impede access to justice. It argues that TFGBV not only inflicts harm on individuals but also restricts women’s participation in public and digital spaces, thereby undermining democratic engagement and civic inclusion. It calls for a shift toward survivor-centered, rights-based approaches integrating legal reform, platform accountability, digital literacy, and broader processes of social transformation.