easypaisa, Pakistan's largest fintech company, has a mission to give the unbanked women of the country - an astounding 82% of the female population - a secure financial future.

While we can't fix the illiteracy problem in Pakistan, we decided to identify and help solve the issue revolving around one of the major threats to a Pakistani woman's financial stability: her marriage contract.

Most Pakistani women's financial journey starts when they get married, thus signing their marriage contract is life-changing. By signing a legal document that she cannot read and does not have access to (51% Pakistani women, about 60 million, are illiterate), a woman is unaware of what she has agreed to.

Often, this includes waiving the right to divorce, trapping a home-bound woman into financial dependency for the rest of her life, absolving the husband of any financial obligations towards her.

The brief was to find a solution.

While millions of women may be unable to read the marriage contract, there should be no stopping them listening to it.

So, we brought them the country's first ever Audio Nikahnama.

An audio guide of the marriage contract - accessible anytime, anywhere, from any mobile phone or landline, and the easypaisa app.

This was a first for the country. Never before did illiterate women – who make up more than half the women of Pakistan - have any access to understanding their marriage contract independently.

Our PR strategy hinged on a crucial social behavior and cultural insight that 51% of Pakistani women are illiterate and cannot read and understand the marriage contract they are obligated by law to sign. Moreover, discussing the marriage contract is a social taboo.

Our approach aimed to shift cultural norms around discussing marriage rights to direct women to access to the Audio Nikahnama.

The strategy targeted these women and the broader community influencing marital decisions involved, to encourage open conversations about women's rights in marriage. We engaged community leaders, seeking to normalize this empowering tool in society, creating a movement to challenge and change longstanding gender biases.

Our timeline was strategic, aligning with periods of heightened societal focus on marriage and women's rights and our PR program was as well; leveraging community outreach programs, and even beauty parlors in both urban and rural communities.

The highly accessible audio is available on any kind of mobile phone or landline. Simply dial a number and listen to one of seven languages which explain in detail exactly what a Nikahnama entails and what a woman should look out for. The audio guides are also available on the easypaisa app.

The inclusive audio is also available in sign language for the hearing-impaired illiterate women for whom no solution was previously available.

The timeline was strategic, aligning with periods of heightened societal focus on marriage and women's rights. Placement was key: the service was advertised through local media TV channels, social media, community outreach programs, and beauty parlors in both urban and rural communities, ensuring widespread awareness. Efforts were made to ensure ease of access regardless of the user's location or tech-savviness.

With more than 57,000,000 impressions of the campaign and accessed more than 650,000 times, Audio Nikahnama sparked off an immense conversation nationally around the importance of every woman being able to understand her marriage contract. News shows covered the campaign, as did morning shows which target women specifically.

For the brand, this resulted in 200,000 new sign ups, with the female user base increasing by 6% and top-of-mind awareness for the brand growing by 7% amongst women.

The impact on social behavior generated through this campaign, however, is its most powerful result. Discussions are now in place to push for legislation which mandates a marriage registrar to ask the bride specifically whether she has understood her marriage contract.

For the millions of women who can't read, this would not be possible without the Audio Nikahnama.