Violence against women and girls has invaded all spaces, including virtual ones, and this must end,

For individuals vulnerable to intersecting forms of discrimination, the levels of digital violence they experience are even more extreme. Research shows LGBTQIA+ people, women and girls with disabilities, and people of African descent all experience online abuse specifically tied to their identities. Black women are an estimated 84 percent more likely than white women to be attacked in abusive tweets,”

What happens on social media doesn’t stay on social media. Online violence is real world violence.

We have a responsibility – as an online community, as Canadians and as leaders – to stamp out cyberviolence.
That’s why the Department for Women and Gender Equality is working with partners across the country to prevent and eliminate cyberviolence.
So what exactly is cyberviolence? We often see a pushback, a denial of its legitimacy – people see cyber violence as a made-up thing. But research and experience show it’s real – and so are its impacts.
Cyberviolence is the use of social media, cell phones and other electronic devices to do harm. It is often repetitive. It is often anonymous. And it has serious and dire consequences.
Ready for a few examples? Looking at the Twitter feeds of women in leadership, I came across a trove of online violence and hate.

In the face of all the dire and often accurate warnings of danger on the road for women, it took modern feminism to ask the rock-bottom question: Compared to what? Whether by dowry murders in India, honor killings in Egypt, or domestic violence in the United States, records show that women are most likely to be beaten or killed at home and by men they know. Statistically speaking, home is an even more dangerous place for women than the road. Perhaps the most revolutionary act for a woman will be a self-willed journey — and to be welcomed when she comes home.

There is absolutely no place in SA where women and girls are safe. We are not safe at home, in the car, public transport, at school, in the mall, in the post office or the club

We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this Earth, though it's almost never treated as a civil rights or human rights issue, or a crisis, or even a pattern. Violence doesn't have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, but it does have a gender. (p21)

We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this Earth, though it's almost never treated as a civil rights or human rights issue, or a crisis, or even a pattern. Violence doesn't have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, but it does have a gender.

he United Nations reports that on average, one in three women globally have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, usually from an intimate partner. Statistics in South Africa also paint a grim picture as women and children are at risk for being victims

From the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and men in the global South, to the predominantly female online bullying, sexual exploitation, and violence across the world; it seems that obstacles to equality have multiplied, mutated, and evolved

women are more often than men subjected to violence and harassment at work but unfortunately, although violence against women is widely acknowledged, few people raise a voice against the vice.

There's no question women politicians get a level of abuse online which men don't get. New media and the anonymity has unleashed a really quite violent misogyny which I didn't see when I started in politics, although consistently women always get more severe abuse in the media than men.

Women worldwide ages 15 through 44 are more likely to die or be maimed because of male violence than because of cancer, malaria, war and traffic accidents combined,

We live in a world where women are abused daily and are unable to speak up. One out of four women experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. This crime can take place at anytime and can happen to anyone regardless of tribe, religion or social class. Sadly, the society’s response to this heinous crime has led victims to believe that silence is the best option. However, Speaking up is our greatest weapon in this fight against sexual violence.