In the Indian subcontinent, forced dowry is a practice in which the groom's family coerces the bride's family to pay the groom in material goods. Failure to match this expectation frequently results in thousands of brides being victimized through domestic violence and, in many cases, even leading to death through murder or suicide.

In Pakistan, the custom is practiced by all classes, and national laws against it have been unable to stop people from continuing to pressure women to submit. UN Women's goal was to start a national movement against this custom, and give people tools to protest against it in order to drive legislative change.

Morning shows on broadcast and digital in Pakistan are highly popular. Occasionally, these shows will feature an actual wedding taking place live in the studio. Our idea revolved around hijacking this platform and introducing the mystery bride of a celebrity as not a woman, but material goods that are often demanded in dowry.

Once the show was hijacked, we introduced the symbol of our campaign: a henna stamp on a palm that people could hold up defiantly, one that said "Stop dowrymongering”.

With very limited budget, we knew that we would need to go guerrilla for this campaign. We first strategised to use as "billboards" the most common visual element in Pakistan during the wedding season: the henna patterns that women wear on their hands. A special henna stamp would be launched with a message defying "dowrymongering". In order to launch this stamp and to get the news out, we then strategised to hijack the popular custom of staging weddings on morning shows, thus gaining free media coverage.

Through a carefully planned PR campaign, we slowly introduced to the public the news that celebrity Ali Rehman was about to get married. Images of him wearing a ring were floated online, and were picked up by publications and crazed fans. Ali then released a short video on his social channel and announced that he would indeed be getting married, but his mystery bride would be revealed on the Geo Morning Show.

Thousands tuned in to see the bride. But during the show, instead of a woman, the shocked audience were introduced to a collection of "dowry" material goods: jewelry, appliances, car keys, etc. Ali took this opportunity to explain the campaign.

We then introduced our campaign henna stamp and slogan: "Stop Dowrymongering" on the same platform.

The campaign became the most trending topic in Pakistan during the wedding season. Thousands of women - and men - put up images of our symbol in protest. All the major national news channels carried the campaign on the news.

BBC called the campaign "Instrumental in sparking conversation around the issue." A total reach of 495,000,000 resulted in about $2,100,000 of earned media, all organic.

News reports started coming in of parents canceling weddings when anybody put up a demand of dowry. A cultural shift had started to take place.

The most impactful result for the campaign was a statement issued by the Islamic Council, by far the most influential body in Pakistan, that forced dowry is unIslamic. Several clerics joined in the condemnation, further making the act a matter of not only losing self-respect, but also classifying it as a sin.