By Vaso Kollia,
Secretary General for Gender Equality
The "thriller" of the kidnapping of 276 girls by the extremist Islamist organization "Boko Haram" in Nigeria, has once again highlighted the enormous positive potential of the internet. Despite the reactions and criticism, in the emerging online public opinion we can identify a social force with progressive potential, which can work positively for gender equality, making up-to-date information on the situation of women in different societies around the world immediately available.
Already, a global wave of support has been generated, exerting its own pressure on the relevant bodies and authorities in Nigeria to act dynamically to resolve the crisis that has erupted.
We realize that accountability is no longer defined by the jurisdictional boundaries set by national institutions or even international organizations. With the help of digital groups and networks, reputable international non-governmental organizations and activist organizations mobilize the citizen-user of the Internet on “difficult” issues such as domestic or sexual violence against women, through research and data. The information and opinions are then reproduced by traditional information channels, reaching every corner of the planet.
Thus, after the publication of a recent study by the United Nations (UN Women), it became widely known that Latin American countries have increased rates of domestic violence compared to other regions of the planet. We learned that a woman is murdered every 15 seconds in São Paulo, Brazil's largest city, while in Colombia, the rate of women attacked with hydrochloric acid, resulting in their disfigurement, has quadrupled in the last two years.
The issue of sex-selective abortion has gained traction on the internet, a practice that continues to be practiced or is being revived, to the point of disrupting the demographic balance in some regions of the world. In China, India, the Caucasus, and other parts of Asia, births of boys outnumber those of girls by up to 10%.
In December 2012, the brutal gang rape and death of a 23-year-old Indian student on a bus in New Delhi shocked the world. The rape was one of thousands committed in India every year, with the country’s capital holding the sad scepter. But it became a symbol that encapsulated the horror of the act, opening the floodgates of Aeolus and the news “gatekeepers” around the world. It provoked an unprecedented social outcry at home and abroad, forcing India to enact stricter legal frameworks for rape and sexual harassment.
In raising awareness among the global community, the electronic media played a central role, broadcasting the tragic news immediately around the world, as well as images of the widespread protests that broke out within the country after the incident. In parallel with this incident, other heinous acts began to reach the public, including attempted suicides by gang rape victims, attempted murders of victims by the perpetrator, and horrifying stories of rapes and infant deaths of unspeakable brutality.
The internet has proven that it can support the international, digital expression of public opinion to play the role of a mirror to closed, conservative or stagnant societies, where stagnant waters may hide malformed abscesses of human injustice and gender inequality.
However, we must not forget that the internet is not a neutral “tool” or a complex of “channels” of communication, but rather a universe, an ecosystem that can also entail dangers and “notorious” neighborhoods. It is not uncommon for girls or women to be blackmailed in order not to be exposed in front of the open “window” of social networks, even leading to suicide.
But let us remain optimistic. The exposure, through online communities, of regressive morals and practices may exert positive pressures on women in areas of the world that wish to align themselves with more progressive and developed societies. Perhaps the most important conclusion, however, is that through online socialization we can discover that in every country, in every place, there are always people who will confront practices of degradation or even violence against women.
Our world will have much more hope of becoming more humane if the fruits of the efforts of aware people who will use new means of communication and networking to demand a better and more just life for men, women and children are multiplied.
Source: press-gr.blogspot.gr
