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This study compares two adjacent remote valleys in the Himalayas of Pakistan, which only differ in terms of the availability of internet access. Using a unique methodological approach, combining a natural experiment design and an interview method, we explore the role of serendipitous exposure and interfaith contact on social media in relation to the religious majority’s knowledge about religious minorities and willingness to engage with them. We find that those who have internet access and use social media show more knowledge about and engagement with religious minorities than those who do not. Serendipitous exposure largely explains the differences—social media users do not intentionally seek information about religious minorities but still serendipitously come across it while using social media for other activities. Moreover, social media users tend to have extensive networks of social ties (i.e., Facebook friends), which frequently cut across religious lines and likely act as the main facilitators of serendipity. We argue that mediated serendipity and increased interfaith contact promoted by social media platforms are essential contributors to democratic citizenship in present-day Pakistan, where religious minorities represent a small segment of the population and often face discrimination and persecution.

This study aims to investigate Victorian society's toxic stereotypes, enslaving gender roles, and subtle patronising behaviours of males towards women through the lens of Nora from Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1889) and Candida from G.B. Shaw's Candida (1894). Moreover, this research compares the different feminist ideologies of Ibsen and Shaw to Nora and Candida's actions. Victorian women were denied their social, economic, political, religious, or even moral rights. Ibsen and Shaw, through their feminist heroines, strived to expose society's injustice towards the female sex. The methodology is a comparative, descriptive analysis of the selected plays by employing the theory of feminism. The study succeeds in highlighting the oppressive designs used against women by the male-dominant patriarchy and distinguishing the unique feminist approaches of Ibsen and Shaw.