Women urged to use internet to promote their issues

Ms. Jemila Abdulai, a founding Director of Circumspect.com have encouraged women to start using demographic means through the internet to promote issues that are related  to  girls and women to make publications on women understandable.

Ms. Abdullai noted that, “Women must bear it in mind that anything you do electronically especially through the internet never gets deleted easily, therefore the focus now on Women’s Right Online [WRO] initiative.”

She made this remarks at a workshop on Women’s Right Online in Ghana held by the Media Foundation for West Africa [MFWA].

She added that, women should empower themselves to stop the recent flooding of nude pictures and videos that have being circulating on social media and other platforms.

She emphasized that, women should come out of their cold and comfort zones to boldly defend and challenge the problems facing them.

According to Shamima Muslim Alhassan, Alliance for Women in Media Africa, Journalist and women’s rights advocates can use the internet to promote their work and empower themselves and women in Ghana.

She therefore advised reporters to protect the safety and identity of victims and avoid re-victimization. It serves no public good to publish names and pictures of victims as assault or other offenses but rather seek and demand Justice for victims.

Gender inequality in Ghana is a pervasive issue which has drawn considerable attention among certain sections of the county’s leadership, human rights activists, feminists, academics, media and other well-meaning Ghanaians who have the interests of under-represented groups (mostly women) at heart.

In a baseline study conducted by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), it was found that online harassment is one of the major risks facing women in the Ghanaian online space. According to the study, online harassments usually manifest in the forms of non-consensual distribution of photos and videos, sexual harassment, cyber stalking, and hate and offensive comments.

According to a study conducted in poor, urban communities in 9 cities across the global South, ‘’women are 50% less likely than men to be online and 30-50% less likely to use the internet for economic and political empowerment.

Unreliable Internet service and high cost of data services serve as barriers preventing women from exploiting the huge potential the Internet offers for self-empowerment and overall development.

By:Latifa Carlos