It's not just about nudity warns actress - the complex reality of images and online abuse

Social media companies and authorities are failing women by focusing on nudity rather than consent when dealing with image-based abuse, according to a new report by gender justice organisation Chayn [1]. The report, titled Explicit Harms of Non-Explicit Images, argues that for many women, a fully clothed image can have consequences every bit as devastating as an intimate photograph within their wider, and often conservative, communities [1]. Chayn conducted 64 interviews between July 2025 and February 2026, with participants spanning every major region of Pakistan as well as diaspora communities in the UK, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, the UAE and Kuwait [1]. "The image does not have to be nude for it to be harmful," said Hera Hussain, report author and founder of Chayn. "Sometimes it can be as harmful, even if not a single body part is bare." [1] The report details the case of a 32-year-old Pakistani university lecturer, given the pseudonym Mahnoor, whose ex-husband gained access to her WhatsApp account and distributed private, non-explicit images to male relatives, colleagues and acquaintances [1]. The photographs, which included ordinary selfies and pictures in Western clothing, were used to portray her as "a woman of bad character" [1]. Mahnoor said she lost her social standing and the once powerful position she held in her community. "I lost my voice," she told the BBC. "I no longer felt visible." [1] When Mahnoor took her case to Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, she was told the images fell outside its remit because they were not nude or sexually explicit [1]. Her written complaint was declined on those grounds [1]. She also reported the images to WhatsApp but was told they did not breach the platform's rules [1]. Actress Ayesha Omar, who has worked in Pakistan's film and television industry for more than 20 years, said her own images were stolen from a laptop and circulated online over a decade ago. Photographs taken on a beach in Thailand, where she wore a one-piece swimsuit and shorts, were posted without her knowledge. "It was very damaging for my career," she said. "I lost ad campaigns. I lost some work stuff." [1] The report argues that harm is often determined not by what the image contains, but by why it is shared, who receives it and what consequences follow [1]. Hussain said the principle is "respect, dignity, consent" [1]. The research catalogues the kinds of images women feared seeing shared: hair visible without a headscarf, Western or fitted clothing, a photograph taken beside a man who is not a relative, a screenshot of a fabricated conversation, or an image generated by AI from a single photo of someone's face [1]. Some countries have legal frameworks that treat image sharing as a question of privacy rather than nudity. France has long recognised a "right to one's own image" under Article 9 of its Civil Code, giving every person an exclusive right over how their image is used [1]. The UAE goes further, criminalising the photographing of people without consent even in public places, with no broad public-interest exemption [1]. Hussain said there is a "systemic failure" and that police, courts and tech platforms "can all do so much better in supporting survivors" [1].