Young feminist leaders have been taught how to tell stories, a move to end online gender based violence and it’s manifestation.
Maurine Tukahirwa,the Chief Executive Officer at Girls Must Uganda, a youth led feminist movement of young women leaders while training feminists in Kabale town about digital safety and security revealed that innocent young women and girls have gone through untold psychological torture and suffering online, which she says should end.
Tukahirwa added that story telling about how some feminists have succeeded in ending online violence against women can change the narrative.
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? When I am not for myself, what am I? If not now, when? To put together a public narrative, we need to master how to tell a story of self, story of us and the story of now. We each have stories of hope, or we wouldn’t think we could change it,”Tukahirwa said.
Tukahirwa added that stories pass on values, emotions and action from generation to generation.
Young Girls Become pregnant during COVID-19;
Tukahirwa noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, most teenage girls in Kigezi sub region were impregnated, revealing that all this started by these young girls being attacked online.
“The majority of women and girls who are active on social media have ever experienced some form of online gender-based violence. This has resulted in teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy and early marriage limit the ability of these girls to go to school and find gainful employment.” she added.
According to Tukahirwa, it’s very difficult for victims of online gender based violence to find support in Uganda because laws do not refer to online gender based violence despite several contributions and efforts made.
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