Young women and social media against sexual harassment in North Africa

Abstract

This article discusses anti-sexual harassment initiatives launched in North Africa within the broader context of the Arab Spring. Although women's rights groups have mobilised against gender-based violence for the past few decades, recent initiatives signal interesting shifts in how the young generation of women and men behind these initiatives conceptualise the linkages between sexual harassment, citizenship and the gendering of democracy. I use the Egyptian Harassmap and the Moroccan Women-Shoufouch as examples of how young activists combine on-the-ground mobilisation with cyber activism that maximises the potential of new communication technologies (Internet and cell phone) and social networks (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). I argue that it is through this combination of online and offline activism that they have succeeded in exposing the complicity of political and patriarchal forces in (re)producing and condoning sexual harassment before and since the Arab Spring. Drawing on various sources, including interviews with young activists, I underscore interesting generational shifts in how young activists think of, talk about and react to sexual harassment within societies where the topic has long been condemned to silence. Recent efforts, I contend, promise to launch an irreversible process of change.

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