OP-ED: Men who leak nude photos for revenge have no difference with women murderers 

By Betty Nambooze

For some days now, I have been stressed by the wide circulation of photographs and videos showing the nakedness of two young ladies allegedly leaked by their ex-lovers.

It further saddened me to see that the name of an alleged father of the girl was dragged into this matter. It was clear that the leaks were intended to “murder” these young women. The bad incidents were also exploited through confusion of characters and mix-up to link in the scandals a high ranking Muslim religious leader.

The timing wouldn’t have been better for the attackers given that the Muslims are observing their holy month of Ramadan. The incidents were properly manipulated to become an attack on the Muslim faction of Kibuli. Few people are observant enough to know that the leaked nudes are about two different girls…both stories have now been framed up into one.

All along I have been wondering about the evilness of people who kill our girls as they ransom families for money….the type that painfully killed Susan Magala to traumatise a full nation.

In my view there is no difference between the people who killed Magala and men who for revenge leak photos of naked women shared in times of passion and intimacy.

Am equally disturbed by people especially women who join such men to further traumatise through demonising women who are already shattered by this act of gross violation of one’s privacy.

There has been many social media posts that are tools of violence against women….Such posts tend to represent women as responsible for the violence of which they are victims. Usually, aggressors are not part of posts or society ridicule that comes in reaction to the post.

In most of our social setup , Violence Against Women is not shown as a structural problem which is the consequence of inequality between women and men in society, but as a mere individual experience which uses to happen in domestic spaces…this is sad.

We have 135 women sitting in Parliament and earning handsomely on behalf of the female human beings in Uganda. Of specific responsibility,these MPs are supposed to make sure that we have laws and policies to protect women but you hardly see these sisters of mine coming out with proposals to safeguard their Constituency.

Exposing women nakedness by jilted lovers should cease to be a matter to laugh about…we can’t allow society to be so brutal and cruel. Its time we get to do something.

This is not even the right time to demand for an explanation from the Marthas on why they allow to be blinded into such actions…Love and the madness of what happens between a woman and a man in lust can make people do all sorts of things and yes that is one of the mystery of love.

Unfortunately, non of us has a meter to detect the mental strength of the person you are allowing into your privacy.

It’s upon this background that all right thinking members of society should condemn such acts, delete these videos and pictures on sight and also join a campaign to fight social media violence against women. We need also to stand with the victims and assist them to overcome shame and move on.

If this doesn’t stop with Martha, tomorrow it might be you,your sister,your daughter or even your mother. Have a nice Weekend.

NB: I write this as the People’s Minister for Information,ICT& National Guidance.