I couldn’t agree more with GG on the issue about violence
against women being across the board including social classes. It’s always
unfortunate that women victims are always accused of ‘inviting’ the violence to
themselves yet the causes are deeper.It’s a high time we also interrogated the
perpetrators and their motives which normally range from substance abuse,
provocation, low self esteem and need to prove masculinity by being physical
etc. but all which nonetheless can never justify the violation.
Coming to the use of technology to perpetrate violence against
women, this is not an issue we can run away from because technology is a tool
and it depends on how the user decides to use it. Critical then is to come up
with some regulations to govern and control abuse of internet technology. In
addition, there must be deliberate effort by players and stakeholders especially
government to encourage the women to use technology positively though the
young generation is quite savvy across gender.
Jane
From: kictanet
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+info=amwik.org@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Grace
Githaiga
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 11:28 PM
To: info@amwik.org
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] [ISOC_KE] Technology and Violence against women
Kelvin
Yes
yes you need to be corrected:)
You
will be surprised that violence against women cuts across board i.e. in rural
areas, in urban areas, in slums, in the leafy suburbs etc. Further,
violence is not only physical but also psychological.
In
regard to technology, there have been many cases of women's nude pictures being
posted on internet by rejected lovers (and don't ask me why women allow their
lovers access to their nude pics cause i have no answers). Women talk of the
trauma they go through after something like this has happened (equate this
to psychological violence). Do you remember sometime back, Kaz
(she is in the entertainment industry) had to appeal to people to stop
forwarding or circulating hers which were posted by an ex, cause it was causing
her so much anguish?
Patricia
Kihoro of 2010 Tusker Project Fame told us in the survey we conducted on cyber
crime and women, that there was a Patricia hate page created on facebook
after she voted for Ng'ang'alito instead of Debal. This scared her and she
didnt know how the the public would treat her after she left the academy. She
told us that she put private settings on her facebook page so that it would be
impossible to trace her in the searches. This is just an example of how women are
intimidated through the net.
Okay
Kelvin. Pls share what men think as you promised.
Charles
raises an important point that the same online tools used to intimidate women
could be used to strengthen and empower women. And Charles, do you think
that there are gaps already? Say technological?
Rgds
GG
Date:
Tue, 19 Jun 2012 16:27:44 +0300
From: kgithira@gmail.com
To: isoc@orion.my.co.ke
Subject: [ISOC_KE] Technology and Violence against women
Hi all,
i do think that most cases of women violence happens in rural areas or slums
(assumption ....i dnt have statistics and i stand to be corrected).
if we are to use technology in form of tools like blogs / cell phones we
must remember that the internet penetration levels are very low in the rural
areas and hence may not reach the targeted or larger audience.
it begins with us we must strive to come up with guidelines that will ensure
that in Kenya even the very remote areas in the near future will have a tool
for women to raise there voices. we can train women on this skills to blog,
create websites but without internet connection there is no platform to air
this views.
we must also ask our self's why there is violence against women its only after
we understand this that we can solve this primitive behavior . interestingly in
Congo this is what women think about it via an sms poll.
the women
· Despite all forms
of violence that I suffer at the hands of my husband, I consider them as
accidents and I think he will change.
· We are forced to
suffer all forms of violence, because we love our men, despite their violence,
and also because of the children. And sometimes we don't have a good social
situation, because there is nothing for us anymore at our parents' home.
· Yes, you're scared
of losing our home if ever we think to lodge a complaint or ask ourselves where
will we live, especially when you don't work.
· We don't know who
to turn to when we are victims of violence, because our friends give bad advice.
· For fear of
further abuse, we are sometimes obliged to go along with the decisions of our
husbands, even when they are bad.
· Does justice
really care about these kinds of problems? When I went to the police (PSP), I
was told we had to settle amicably, because he is my husband.
tomorrow i will share what the men think.
regards,
kelvin
On
Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 2:44 PM, Charles Oloo <oloo6382@gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [ISOC_KE] Kenya IGF Online
discussions Day 3: Technology and Violence against women
Listers.
1. How can we strengthen participation of women in areas of internet
governance, telecommunications, and cyber crime policy regulation?
This is a very important Q. Although there are many options to tackle such
problems, the best method would be using the same tools to address the problem.
Bloging may not be very popular or used by a large proportion of women, but it
provides an instant window to combat those using the same for bad purposes. The
speed by which information is passed -spread thro blogging, tweeting, FB etc is
so fast and quicker that the normal channels and procedures one may use to
reports such occurrences.
web2fordev] Web 2.0 Learning Opportunities that teach people to use social
media tools. If women are empowered with these technologies, they stand a
better chance of combating the problem.
Charles
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