AMMAN —
According to
Al-Hayat Center for Civil Society Development (Rased), thousands
of cases of electronic violence that carried hate speech on social media, were
registered, most of them were against women voters and candidates, during the
municipal and governorate councils elections that took place last Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
Activists, women MPs, and candidates interviewed by
Jordan
News, said that one of the main reasons for the increase in hate speech and
cyber bullying is the lack of legislation that deters such actions, and that
the government and concerned entities must work to raise and strengthen
citizens’ awareness about the harms and dangers of bullying.
MP
Zainab Al-Bdoul told
Jordan News that in the Kasbah of Maan, “no woman dared to
run for elections, and the reason for that was their fear of offensive
comments, especially comments that target women’s appearance and private
lives”.
She added that women should ignore offensive
comments; “if we do not do that, we will not be able to continue” the political
work.
According to Bdoul, women must also work to
strengthen trust in them; “this is a patriarchal society that still views women
as just a body and does not consider their thoughts and minds. We have to
empower women politically for them to be able to resist and prove themselves”.
Bdoul added that “when a woman has sound thinking
and clear principles, she will inevitably impose respect”.
“We must strengthen societal culture about the
dangers of bullying and also strengthen laws and regulations, for them to act
as deterrents to such heinous acts,” she said.
MP
Dina Al-Bashir told
Jordan News that cyber
bullying affects both men and women, but that “the abuse that affects women
targets her person and her personal life”.
She added that some candidates are forced to
withdraw from the elections as a result of abuse and bullying.
“We have to educate women candidates about the
importance of the woman fighting for her rights and not being silent. Civil
society institutions also have an important role in promoting and spreading
awareness about the mechanism for submitting a complaint in this regard, and
who is the concerned party in this matter, so that the candidates can deal
properly with bullying and abuse,” she said.
Founder and Director of the
Arab Women Media Center
Mahasen Al-Emam, who is also a women’s rights activist, told
Jordan News that one of the main reasons for bullying women, in particular, “is the lack of
acceptance by some, until today, of the presence of women in the
decision-making position and the jealousy of some men, stemming from this
matter, especially since some believe that some positions are reserved for men
only”.
She added that there are deterrent laws for these
acts, but “unfortunately, they are not enforced in practice. The presence of
social networking sites has opened the way for some people to publicly offend.
Therefore, we have to raise awareness among citizens about the dangers of
bullying, and to punish anyone who publishes abuse of any individual in
society, whether male or female”.
Executive Director of the Legal Network for Arab
Women Samah Marmash told
Jordan News that the problem lies in the wrong
societal beliefs, “which aim to weaken the image of women and even break them”.
She added that “the way of thinking of some must be
changed, especially since verbal abuse is caused by a closed mind”.
She also said that “we have to learn to express our
point of view about something without personalizing things, and also to
criticize something and not someone; if you want to criticize, you can
criticize the lack of a clear electoral program, for example, and not the
outward appearance of the candidates”.
“Changing the societal culture in this matter
requires us to work over the course of a whole year and to enhance a healthy
community culture among school and university students, and to teach them how
to replace abusive bullying with things that will serve and advance our
society,” she added.
Yasmin Zoubi, who was a candidate in the last
election, told
Jordan News that bullying targeted all candidates, male
and female, and the reason for this is that “some people like to hurt and harm
each other”.
She said that “I
was among the women who were bullied, but I believe that I cannot change
people’s behavior and way of thinking, but in return, I believe that there
should be reinforcement of legislation, to act as a deterrent to such heinous
acts”, and that awareness about the harms of bullying and its consequences,
should be raised, “especially since some people still do not realize that
bullying is a criminal act by law”.
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