Violence Against Women and Protest on Social Media

In recent years Social media have become a revolutionary platform to raise voice against sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women. Although women tried to keep any incidence of such violence within the boundary of their family and friends, they are now sharing their stories in social media like blog, twitter and facebook.

 For example, when media released a video of former NFL player Ray Rice attacking her then girlfriend Janay Rice in a hotel elevator, media was buzzed with questions pointing to Janay Rice’s support to Ray Rice. Seeing huge public reaction, famous author Beverly Gooden created a hashtag #WhyIStayed, where women who were the victims of abusive relationship started sharing their own experiences of facing domestic violence. Later another hashtag # WhyILeft was created that shed light on factors that cause women to stay and that coerce them to leave.

Similarly, in the wake of CBC’s star host Jian Gomeshi story of sexual assault, media has again stormed with the issue of violence against women. Many victims are sharing their stories in social media explaining how they face sexual assault in their homes and workplaces.  

CBC Host: Jian Gomeshi.  Source: Flickr.

 Studies show that one in three women in the world face some sort of sexual violence during their lifetime. Yet, most women do not report it to seek justice. Both social stigma and unfriendly judicial system constrain them to come forward. Often women face backlash from the society if they disclose their harassment experiences; they are not believed rather they are claimed for it. On the other hand, if they report such cases to police, their claims often get dismissed. As Amanda Dale, executive director of The schiffer Clinic said in an interview with Global News that, “You are telling your story in an empowering way and you opened yourself and feel vulnerable and someone comes after you that can feel doubly damaging.”

Although women are making their stories of violence public in the social media, it is yet to be seen whether this will be effective to change the root causes of gender violence. Will it really change men's abusive behavior to their female counterparts? Obviously we need to reform our police and judiciary system to make them more women friendly. There is also a need for proper education and community effort to change men's violent attitude towards women.