Pakistani activist Nighat Dad makes it to Young Global Leaders 2018 list

Pakistan makes its mark on the global scale yet again.

Digital rights activist and lawyer, Nighat Dad from Pakistan has landed on the Young Global Leaders 2018 list alongside Indian actor Priyanka Chopra and many other international influencers who are transforming how we define leadership.

The list includes 100 of the world's most promising and sought-after artists, public servants, business leaders, entrepreneurs and technologists under the age of 40 have been invited to join the World Economic Forum's community of Young Global Leaders.

Speaking to Images, Dad shares: "When I started working on digital rights, in all honesty, I didn't know if it'd even be recognised - let alone celebrated. I have said this on various platforms that I was laughed at by the very people who I was working for, because they thought digital rights end when the electricity goes off or when they shut down their computers. But this is not true, and everyone knows it now."

The 2018 class of Young Global Leaders will be joining a community and a five-year programme that will challenge them to think beyond their scope of expertise and be more impactful leaders. They were nominated because of their ground-breaking work, creative approaches to problems and ability to build bridges across cultures and between business, government, and civil society.

She added, "My aim with the work we're doing at the Digital Rights Foundation primarily focuses on ensuring that online spaces are safe for everyone to use, a space that is owned by no one but belongs to everyone."

"It was worrying when I saw young women who were long been oppressed in the offline world also chose to remain silent on the internet because they were scared of the 'consequences' that trolls and harassers will project on them."

Dad then revealed: "I only had two options: either let things be how they have been for generations - which is easy to do; and the other option was to help them occupy these spaces - which even though requires a lot of efforts but is also equally rewarding. I chose the latter."

YGL has been dubbed as “the most exclusive private social network in the world” so you can imagine it's a big achievement.

"Acknowledgements and accomplishments like the Young Global Leaders 2018 is a motivation for me to keep moving forward and a sign that my work is making an impact on my people, the people of Pakistan. I'm thrilled and excited, to say the least, to join the 2018 cohort of the Young Global Leaders alongside some very amazing and accomplished leaders from around the world. This will be my opportunity to represent Pakistan and its people at a global platform that is known to advance change in communities across borders," said the activist.

Young Global Leaders is an independent non-profit organization managed from Geneva, Switzerland under the supervision of the Swiss government and was launched by World Economic Forum in 2004. It is governed by a board of 12 world and industry leaders such as Queen Rania of Jordan, Wikipedia co-founder, Jimmy Wales, Marissa Mayer of Yahoo! to name a few.