"We are leaving women and girls in marginalized communities far, far back," says Pakistan's Ayesha Amin, founder of Baithak Challenging Taboos, a youth- and women-led organization working to expand access to information on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
"There is no alternative."
That's why Amin's group is rolling out Gul, a voice assistant powered by WhatsApp that will use local languages to help educate young people on reproductive health issues, Mashable reports.
The voice assistant, named after a common gender-neutral name"can a have a friend in terms of this voice assistant who they can ask for this information," Amin sayswill be available in Pakistani, Urdu, and English to educate young people on issues such as STDs, pregnancy, and STIs.
The idea is to use technology to overcome existing barriers to information and care for women.
"Most of the FemTech applications that exist right now benefit women who are from socially and economically privileged groups," Amin tells Mashable.
"For women from rural communities, women who aren't digitally literate or those without sufficient income to pay for subscription-based apps, even these alternative forms of healthcare remain out of reach."
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