UN Women Launch 'Inkvisible' to Fight Domestic Violence in Pakistan

To reduce spousal abuse in Pakistan, UN Women, in collaboration with IMPACT BBDO, have launched a powerful campaign that showcases brides wearing traditional henna, but not as you would expect them to.

Beautiful patterns of henna, instead of traditionally being drawn on hands and feet, form the shape of a black eye on a bride. In another visual, strangulation marks from a large male hand appear around a bride’s neck . Another visual shows what would be an injury on a bride’s forehead and a cut lip drawn out by henna. The jarring visuals are meant to raise the alarm, and to inform millions of married women that they can call a national helpline to seek help.

1 in 3 married women reportedly face physical and mental abuse by their partners, and a vast number don’t report the crime out of fear that the violence may escalate, or due to societal taboos around divorce. A paramount objective for UN Women is to end violence against women, working to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence, sexual violence, and harmful practices like child marriage.

Ali Rez, chief creative officer at IMPACT BBDO, said, “Strategically, we decided to focus on the irony that while a marriage is meant to be celebrated, often it becomes the gateway for abuse. We then looked for symbols of a happy marriage that we could pivot to use as a communication device, and henna of course stood out. Usually meant to adorn hands and feet, in our campaign henna was instead applied in places it had never been before: the areas where bruises often occur as a result of domestic violence.”

The films in the campaign have been played at various events and have been released online on various social channels. Posters were put up in strategic locations that targeted high female traffic in major Pakistani cities. Henna artists who are invited to draw on brides’ hands and feet, were trained them to instruct women on how to escape abuse. Henna cones were printed with the national helpline.

Beyond the rise in calls made to the national helpline immediately following the campaign — indicating that InkVisible had started to inform its audience successfully — one of the strongest results of the campaign was that female parliamentarians in the National Assembly wore henna as wounds and bruises to further the message. They amplified the campaign by reposting it while pushing lawmakers to join them in strengthening laws against spousal abuse.