Meet Our 2025/2026 Media Fellows
Reporting on Digitalisation and
Feminist Digital Rights & Justice
Feminist Voice (APWLD Information and Communications)
The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) is proud to announce our latest cohort of media fellows in our Media Fellowship on Digitalisation and Feminist Digital Rights and Justice.
As digitalisation accelerates across the world, its impacts stretch beyond technology and business into the realms of labour, rights, safety and justice especially for women and marginalised communities.
Often depicted as objective and beneficial, digitalisation is deeply political, while entrenching inequalities in the global south where nearly half of women in Asia and the Pacific still lack Internet access.
Emerging challenges like automation, platform economies, surveillance capitalism, data colonialism and AI-driven displacement are reshaping women’s work, livelihoods and bodily autonomy, while Big Tech’s dominance tightens economic and political control. Meanwhile, the global digital rights discourse often remains narrow and overlooks the structural, gendered and socio-economic barriers women face in accessing, participating in and shaping digital spaces.
In response, our fellows will foreground feminist digital rights and justice and center the ways digitalisation affects women’s lives, work, safety and environment across the region.
Through our fellows’ reporting, we hope to challenge the commodification of digital technologies at the expense of women’s human rights, scrutinise the environmental toll of the tech industry and expose the rise of digital authoritarianism.
ABOUT OUR FELLOWS
This year, we have 17 fellows, with 6 individual and 5 team fellows. They will cover stories that span women’s work in the digital era, online gender-based violence, data privacy, misinformation, the impact of platform economies and the intersections between agriculture, the environment and tech-driven economies.
INDIVIDUAL FELLOWS
Chynargul Zhumabekova holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University (2020). From 2021 to 2024, she worked as a data journalist and web editor at PolitKlinika, and since August 2024, she has been freelancing. In 2022, she completed Internews Kyrgyzstan’s data journalism program and ForSet’s fellowship on data communications in Tbilisi. She also worked on several Internews projects, including social media monitoring and media criticism, where she focused on issues such as online harassment and the portrayal of women in the media. In 2023, she participated in a regional hackathon, and her infographic on menstrual poverty was selected among the top three and published by UN Women. As a freelance journalist, she contributed to national and regional media projects covering gender-based violence and digital rights. She also worked as a trainer in a local student data journalism program.
Jill Senior is a seasoned TV producer and partner at Roll’em Productions in Palau, where she has led media projects since 2004, focusing on culture, community, health, education and the environment. She serves as Vice President of the Palau Media Council and Secretary of the Board at the Pacific Education Alliance for Community and Environment. Raised in Hawai’i, she began her television career there before returning to her native country, Palau, in 2000. Her work includes script development, producing videos, live event coordination, talent scouting and serving as a fixer for international film crews. In 2024, she was one of six Pacific content creators selected for the Pacific Climate Media and Traditional Knowledge (PCMTK) program in Vanuatu, supported by Australian Aid, which trains storytellers to capture climate and traditional knowledge stories through mobile journalism. Jill is committed to producing media that empowers and uplifts island communities.
Kaori Kohyama is a Japanese journalist, researcher and storyteller based in Berlin, focusing on gender, environment, collective memory and postcolonial issues in the East and West. Her work has appeared in outlets such as Bloomberg, BBC Future, Newsweek and Are We Europe. She is an awardee of the 2021 FCCJ Pen Award and has been publicly advocating for women’s rights since 2018, drawing from personal experiences of gender-based violence in the beauty industry. Kaori is also the co-founder of The Leads Asia, an NGO dedicated to fostering open dialogue and constructive communication in Asia-Pacific. With a background in constructive journalism and East Asian studies, she brings a cross-cultural and intersectional lens to her reporting.
Quynh Nguyen (Alex) is a writer, cultural practitioner and mother, currently based in Da Nang, Vietnam. Through her different approaches: from journalism, interviews, photography, initiatives, to even daily life practices, she aims to seek alternative narratives of life, exploring and opening up different possibilities and perspectives on contemporary issues in society.
Safina Nabi is an independent multimedia journalist. She covers South Asia and Indian-administered Kashmir and writes on conflict, human rights, gender, health, culture, social justice and the environment. Her stories have appeared in a range of Indian and international publications like The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Slate Magazine, VICE, openDemocracy and The Christian Science Monitor among others. Safina has received grants and fellowships from Pulitzer Center, Reporters Without Borders, Dart Center, Tactical Tech and International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). Safina holds a master’s degree in communication and journalism from the University of Kashmir.
SRI is a Burmese journalist and podcast producer with experience covering current affairs, social issues and community well-being. Her reporting focuses on the current situation in Myanmar and she also works on topics related to mental health and digitalisation. In addition to her journalism work, she produces podcasts and media content that highlight everyday challenges faced by communities in Myanmar. She is currently based in Thailand and continues to contribute to both local and regional media platforms.
TEAM FELLOWS
Beenish Sarfaraz is an artist-curator and educator based in Karachi, Pakistan. Her interest lies in cultural and heritage stories, environment and social-engaged art making. Currently, she is a faculty member at Beaconhouse National University. Previously, she has worked on projects with Coke Studio Pakistan (2018), Geo Television Network, Centre of Arts-based Methodologies and Wellbeing (CFAW), British Council, State Bank of Pakistan Museum, Manchester Museum, Shirkat Gah, DAWN, Karachi Biennale and Fearless Collective. She has been a creative facilitator at the 4th Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF). Beenish uses inquiry and play as her method of research (and existence). You can find her through her social media handle @magicbeens_
Gulzar Nayani is an impact-driven filmmaker and photographer who uses creative storytelling to challenge cultural, social and political beliefs. Her work primarily documents social movements, including feminist struggles, housing justice, land rights and the rights of lower riparian communities in the Indus Delta region. An alumna of Goethe Film Talents II and Feminist Institute 2.0, her documentary Against the Rubble won Best Documentary at the Chittagong International All Women Film Festival 2025. In the same year, the film premiered at the 41st Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg and was showcased at the Imagining Future Conference hosted by Habib University. Previously, her short documentary Freedom won the Generation Equality Film Festival (2021), organised by the United Nations. Her debut independent documentary, No More Backseaters, premiered at Capri Cinema as part of the Goethe-Institut Pakistan’s Sunday Matinee series. She is currently freelancing and developing a personal photo story initiated under the Pakistan Photo Festival mentorship program. Through this project, she reflects on repressed memories and explores her experience as a childhood cancer survivor, examining its socio-economic and gendered impacts.
Luluwa Lokhandwala is a digital media coordinator at Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre, where she creates content and campaigns around social justice, climate change and health rights. Her background is in filmmaking, photography and design, and she is especially interested in artivism—using creative tools to tell stories that matter. Over the years, she has worked on documentaries, photo essays and visual campaigns that highlight everyday realities and push for change. Whether it’s through zines, murals or digital media, she tries to make work that feels honest, accessible and grounded in the communities it speaks to.
Anita Zhang is a freelance journalist with seven years of experience covering technology and social issues for prominent publications. She excels at translating complex technical issues into accessible narratives. She has reported on the landmark sexual harassment case that catalysed China’s #MeToo movement and efforts to reduce sentences for women who stand up to domestic abusers. She also explores the topic of climate mitigation. Her reporting has been recognised by the SOPA Awards, where she was shortlisted and received an honourable mention.
Kayi Yiu is an independent journalist and labour rights researcher from China, with years of experience reporting on social justice issues. She started her journalism career in 2015 at a non-profit independent media and became a freelancer in 2022. In 2018, she reported on China’s first #MeToo case. In 2020, she published an exclusive investigation into a woman sanitation worker’s fight against sexual harassment. Her reporting in 2022, which reveals rural women’s dispossession of land rights, earned a nomination for the True Story Awards. Recently, she has been focusing on transnational labour issues and immigrant rights.
Luqing Xu is a journalist based in China, with experience reporting on culture, technology and society. Her work often incorporates a gender perspective, which remains central to both her reporting and critical writing. She is also the founder of Coding Witch, a feminist tech platform with a community of over 70,000 members. In 2025, she was selected for the Blaues Haus–One-Way Street Non-Fiction Residency in Berlin, and she is currently part of the Oxford–Reuters Environmental Journalism Network.
Charlotte She is a reporter from China who focuses her reportage on Internet, technology and content platforms, including interviewing company executives, analysing industry trends, researching Internet products and strategies.
Vaneesha Krishnasamy (she/her) is an advocacy journalist and creative producer using film, photography and investigative storytelling to drive social impact. With R.AGE, Malaysia’s award-winning investigative journalism team, she worked on NewsFlash explainers and human-rights stories covering drug trafficking, child rights & refugee rights. Her work included a cross-regional pangolin-trafficking investigation with The Environmental Reporting Collective and the co-production of #StandTogether, a national anti-bullying campaign endorsed by the Ministry of Education. Through advocacy and art, Vaneesha challenges systemic racism, ableism & desirability politics. Notable projects include co-creating for Adobe Stock’s The Melanin Narrative and directing Malaysian Indian photo projects for the Canva Represents Fund, where she was one of only 45 global artists shortlisted—and the only Tamil woman recognised. She also worked with #PsoarHigh–Southeast Asia’s first regional psoriasis awareness campaign, and co-produced for the 15th AWID International Forum with Fourth Media. Believing all justice movements are interconnected, she has spent the past decade working on human-rights projects with organisations like UNFPA’s MWGF, ARROW, ILGA Asia, Exposure+, Psoriasis Association Malaysia(PAM), GoodKids Malaysia, Undi18 and more, and has facilitated creative advocacy workshops with Teach For Malaysia and Felo Parlimen, among others. As a Tamil, queer and multiply-chronically-ill woman, she creates with an intersectional lens—rooted in joy, justice,and compassion—working alongside communities to tell stories that nurture belonging and honour truth, accurately reflecting the world they share.
Mae Kaizerine Dela Cruz is a multidisciplinary creative producer and documentarian whose work is rooted in womanhood, identity and culture. Her short films have been featured in Kurzefilmtage Oberhausen, Germany and SeaShorts film festival, Malaysia. Led by curiosity and crafted with edge, empathy and intention, her stories reflect the world with both sensitivity and bite.
Joanna Robles is a multimedia journalist and filmmaker with nine years of experience in visual storytelling across digital and print platforms. A graduate of the University of the Philippines with a degree in film, she blends creative direction with in-depth reporting to produce socially relevant videos. Her work spans short documentary films, feature articles and short-form video series, tackling issues such as displacement, labour rights, land struggles, and disinformation. She has contributed to platforms like Pinoy Weekly and Film Weekly, where her storytelling highlights everyday struggles of the marginalised Pinoy. Proficient in video editing, photography, writing and social media content creation, she is committed to using media as a platform for truth, education and advocacy.
Michelle Mabingnay is a multimedia journalist with Pinoy Weekly. She writes about labour issues and the labour movement in the Philippines, women’s rights and inclusive development that amplify the narratives of marginalised sectors and communities. Besides being an advocacy journalist, she spends part of her time employed at a call center as a data analyst to support her family. She works regularly with AI programs and has firsthand experience with how they can be used to exploit and constrain workers’ rights.
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APWLD FEMINIST MEDIA FUND FOR ALUMNI
Since 2018, the APWLD Media Fellowship programme has supported women journalists to document grassroots women’s experiences and amplify feminist demands in both mainstream and alternative media spaces.
Over the years, our alumni have published impactful stories that dissect structural inequalities, spotlight movements and calls for Development Justice. Their work has covered development justice, climate justice, the gendered impacts of COVID-19, migration and militarism.
Building on this, APWLD launched the Feminist Media Fund for Alumni in 2025, supporting five individuals and one team to produce in-depth, intersectional stories on urgent social, political, economic and environmental issues through a feminist lens. The first cycle of the fund covers feminist economic justice, climate justice, food sovereignty and peace and militarism.
Our 2025/2026 Feminist Fund for Alumni Media Fellows are: Anne Marxze D. Umil, Nikita Jain, Guliza Urustambek kyzy, Lady Ann Salem, Somaiyah Hafeez, and team alumni fellows Methmalie Dissanayake and Ruiyao Luo.
