GLOBAL: Time to Take Back the Tech

World Pulse members join a global campaign to reclaim technology and create safe spaces for women to speak out.

The Internet can be a violent and scary place to be a woman. Online harassment breeds in a climate of anonymity and impunity. In many parts of the world, women who leave the confines of home to seek education, speak out, and connect online can find themselves targets of acts of violence.

Yet, women will not be silenced. The digital tools used against us are also bringing us together. This year, World Pulse is participating in the Take Back the Tech campaign, a global effort to reclaim technology to end violence against women.

The stories submitted to this campaign prove that the Internet can also be a gathering place for creative resistance to violence.

Resisting Boko Haram by sending girls back to school

How can a miserable sect want these brilliant girls out of school, to become child brides and suicide bombers?

In northern Nigeria, girls seeking education are a target for violence and intimidation by Boko Haram. Olutosin in Nigeria is leading peaceful resistance to Boko Haram and winning the education battle. She rallied global support online to fund education for a group of displaced girls fleeing violence. Today she marvels at the resilience of these girls, who are back in school and taking exams after enduring deeply traumatic experiences.

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Mourning violence in Papua New Guinea

Though domestic violence and abuse still take place, more women are now coming out, voicing what used to once be a topic not to be discussed.

In 2013, a young woman accused of sorcery was publicly burned to death in Papua New Guinea. Since then, Papua New Guineans have been coming together to express their grief for gender-based violence in a series of events called ‘haus Krai’ (house of mourning). carolepng is using video to document this movement.

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Shaming harassers in MENA

The campaign gathered many women together to talk, defend, and heal.

In the Middle East/North Africa region, female victims of street harassment who speak out risk being blamed for their own abuse. Hummingbird from Syria writes about the Expose a Harasser Campaign, a movement that began in Egypt and empowers harassment victims to document and share their experiences, publicly shifting the burden of blame from the harassed to the harasser.

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Spreading awareness with hashtags in the Philippines

The call for solidarity for the Lumad cause became a resounding chorus.

The #saveourschools and #stopkillinglumads hashtags arose to bring attention to the harassment and killings of indigenous people in southern Philippines known as Lumads, and the mass displacement of school-aged Lumad children. Libudsuroy discovered the power of social media to bring visibility and mainstream media coverage to this issue.

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Asserting rights through digital literacy in The DRC

New technology is part of the solution.

Ariane Moza Assumani sees cultural barriers that prevent women from reporting rape and other forms of violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the Maman Shujaa (Hero Women) center in Bukavu, women study reading, writing, and technology as a gateway to learn more about their rights and gain the confidence to claim them.

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Visit Take Back the Tech to read more stories from the Take Back the Tech Campaign.