{"id":18192,"date":"2017-10-15T00:27:18","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T23:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=18192"},"modified":"2017-10-15T00:33:44","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T23:33:44","slug":"women-may-free-indeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/women-may-free-indeed\/","title":{"rendered":"That Our Women May Be Free Indeed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Betty Abah<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was blessed to be a part of a compelling session on women\u2019s safety online at the 2017 Forum on Internet Freedom (FIFAfrica17)<\/em><\/strong> which held in Johannesburg, South Africa between September 27 and 29 this year. And I was the moderator. What a golden seat to sit on, what a familiar-turf-matter to take on!<\/p>\n

Fact is women are not safe online, and I didn\u2019t fail to illustrate with the case of Cynthia Osukogu, a young undergraduate who paid the supreme price for being a Facebook user. She was lured and killed by two of her Facebook friends in Lagos, Nigeria (where I live) in 2012. The two main suspects were found guilty and sentenced to death in March 2017. There are many other cases I know of, of harassment, cyber-bullying etc targeted at the presumed \u2018weaker sex\u2019. I have been cyber-bullied too, by government officials who could not stand \u2018a mere woman\u2019 speaking truth to power or some misogynists loitering around the cyber space!<\/p>\n

On the panel, I had the privilege of having outstanding young women working for women\u2019s empowerment across Africa namely Emilar Ghandi (Facebook), \u00a0Irene Kiwia (Tanzania Women of Achievement), Fran\u00e7oise Mukuku (Si Jeunese Savait, DR Congo) and Patricia Twasiima (Chapter Four, Uganda).<\/p>\n

\"Betty
Betty (in brown dress) and new Kenyan friend, Esther Mwangi at the FIFAfrica 2017 in South Africa, October 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And so, the panelists and audience agreed on one sobering point: not only are women in Africa highly endangered online as they are offline, it is at an alarming rate, reinforced, fed and emboldened by unchecked patriarchy, sexism and the lack of laws to punish perpetrators. In a world where the lines between the virtual and real world are increasingly blurred, it calls for concern, and urgent action. All agreed that the fight for women\u2019s right online must be as dedicated and concerted as that in the physical, everyday world. The vigilance for male predators, who, fueled by overdose of misogyny, and some coarse form of sexist socialisation slung literarily across their shoulders, sauntering onto the online platforms to, as in offline landscape, try to make life uncomfortable for women, must be raised to a high degree. However, there are also cases of women-to-women attacks, sadly.<\/p>\n

Some of the main points from the session included:<\/p>\n