A new report indicating rising cases of misogyny and Tech-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) in Nigeria has been launched by a faith-based media group, Journalists for Christ International Outreach.
Titled Trends & Contexts of Misogyny and Tech-Facilitated Gender -Based Violence in Nigeria, the report includes findings of social media monitoring and outcome of focus group sessions.
The report is part of a series of initiatives under a one-year pilot project entitled ‘countering misogyny and online gender-based violence through monitoring, digital counter narratives and advocacy actions’ being implemented in collaboration with the World Association for Christian Communication Africa Region (WACC-AR).
The project is supported by WACC and Bread for The World -German Protestant Agency for Diaonia and Development.
While Gender-Based Violence(GBV) have always included physical, sexual, psychological, verbal/emotional and economic forms of violence against girls and women, the report confirmed increasing concern that violence against the female gender is now manifesting across digital spaces as TFGBV.
Findings from the social media monitoring on trends on TFGBV revealed cases of Doxing, Deepfakes, Cyber staking, sexting, trolling, revenge porn and others.
The categories of Misogyny found included objectifying women, gendered disinformation, derogatory statements, sexism, Judgemental, Dominance and others.
The platforms monitored are Facebook, X, Tiktok and Instagram.
One of the sample case studies of social media posts highlighted in the report was on the appointment of Mrs Adaora Umeoji as the Group Managing Director/CEO of Zennith Bank, one of the top banks in the country.
Despite her academic, professional qualifications and management positions she held before being named CEO, Mrs Umeoji’s picture became a subject of mysogynistic statements by some persons online, especially in Facebook posts.
In one of the posts which was later deleted after being widely condemned, she was said to “look like a hook up girl”
While launching the report, former Special Adviser to President Mohammad Buhari, Mr Femi Adesina said misogyny is a harmful behaviour which should not be tolerated in any society.
He commended the publications of the research and findings of the social media monitoring to highlight the danger of misogyny and TFGBV and discourage those who engage in such acts.
“The research on online violence against women is another face of gender violence. We need to spread the awareness and make everybody know that it is ungodly to hate women. If God created humanity why should wee hate a part of humanity?” Adesina stated.
A Lecturer at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Mrs Odum Oruoma, who reviewed the report noted that my misogynistic thoughts and ideas are unfounded and based on misconstrued messages.
According to her, misogyny is at its core engrained in social construct and societal traditions where a particular gender is placed over the other.
She urged male gender to rethink their principles and change their approach to addressing gender-related issues. Mrs Oruoma also called on the government to do more to put better mechanisms in place to correct the menace in the country.
Founder of CEE HOPE Foundation, Mrs Betty Abbah, while discussing the report noted that the report is poignant and timely because the first step in solving a social problem require calling it what it is and establishing factual grounds for the position.
She said many people are ignorant of issues of misogyny or are complacent due to the patriarchal nature of Nigerian society.
Another discussant, Pastor Evans Adetokunbo stressed that the stand of Christianity on patriarchy is grossly misrepresented, noting that the Bible, God did not look at the world through gender lenses.
“As such no woman should be victimised or deprived of opportunities just because she is a woman,” she stated.
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