ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reduced its mobile Internet gender gap from 38 percent in 2024 to eight percent this year, Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Monday, describing it as the “fastest closing gender digital divide in the world.”
Pakistan has been seeking to expand digital connectivity and boost women participation in the digital economy, where limited mobile Internet access has long hindered education, employment and financial inclusion.
Addressing the 9th Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference on women, Khawaja highlighted that the proportion of Pakistani women using mobile Internet had risen from 33 percent to 45 percent over the past two years.
“In 2024, when I took office, we were at a 38 percent gender digital divide. In 2025, it came down to 25 percent,” she said, adding, “2026 report shows that we’re down to eight percent of gender digital divide in mobile Internet usage, which is the fastest closing gender digital divide in the world.”
Pakistan’s reported progress comes as women across low- and middle-income countries still face a 12 percent mobile Internet gender gap, with an estimated 810 million women worldwide remaining offline, according to the global mobile industry body GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2026.
Khawaja said the government distributed 10 million free mobile phone connections to women across the country to help them become active participants in the digital economy.
“This year, another 900,000 women came on digital wallets,” she said.
Pakistan hosted delegates from 57 OIC member states to review progress on women’s rights, share national policies and adopt new frameworks at the 9th OIC Ministerial Conference on Women, held in Islamabad on July 12-13 under the theme of “Socio-Economic and Political Empowerment of Women in the OIC Countries: Challenges and the Way Forward.”
