Online safety for women in Africa sits at the center of this episode of Blush and Bloom, where Gigi Kenneth speaks with Yasmin Ahmed, a lawyer working at the intersection of law, technology, and human rights and the founder of the FemTech Law Initiative, a Uganda-based, pan-African effort focused on inclusion, safety, and equitable access to technology for women and girls. Yasmin shares how justice and equality drew her into law and tech, and how a personal mental-health turning point, a workplace issue that forced a year away, pushed her to turn hard lessons into impact and found the FemTech Law Initiative. As she puts it, "the power to change your life, to change others' lives, lies in yourself." She and Gigi talk about women's digital rights as a health issue, because women's health is holistic across mental, emotional, and social wellbeing. They cover the risks around telemedicine and the privacy of sexual and reproductive health data, including period and pregnancy-tracker data, and Yasmin's view that privacy should be part of the design, not an afterthought. The conversation also digs into the digital divide in Uganda, from device and internet access to digital literacy and language barriers when so much online content is English-first rather than in local languages. They discuss data protection in Uganda, including a real court case in which Google was required to register with the data-protection office, and Yasmin's case for privacy by design. They close on AI harms, from deepfakes and voice cloning used to extort to the algorithmic amplification of harmful content, and how hard it can be for women to prove a piece of content is AI-generated. Yasmin makes the case for shared responsibility across lawyers, policymakers, civil society, and platforms, and leaves listeners with a clear message: trust yourself, fight for yourself and others, and remember that progress comes when women support one another. This episode is for anyone interested in online safety for women in Africa, women's digital rights, femtech, data protection, and building a safer, more equitable internet. Connect with Yasmin Ahmed Yasmin Ahmed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmin-ahmed-aa1314210/ FemTech Law Initiative: https://femtechlawinitiative.org/ The FemTech Law Initiative is also on X/Twitter, Bluesky, and Instagram. Search "FemTech Law Initiative" to follow along. Connect with Asele Website: https://asele.tech App: https://asele.health Android app: Download Asele on Google Play Instagram: https://instagram.com/asele.tech LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/asele Connect with Gigi Kenneth LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/gigikenneth Question for listeners: What would make you trust an app with your health data? This episode is for general informational purposes and does not constitute medical, legal, or regulatory advice.
