Anatomy of a campaign: Digital activism as a tool for gender equality

In July 2020, the arrest of university student Ahmed Bassam Zaki in Cairo on the grounds of sexual harassment sparked a social media firestorm in Egypt. Hundreds of women were soon sharing their own experiences of abuse, in what became known as Egypt’s “#MeToo” movement.

Zaki was later found guilty of sexually assaulting three underage girls and over 50 women have accused him of sexual assault. But while many people expressed support for these women, there were also hundreds of social media posts — mostly from men — drawing a link between harassment and the way women dress.

To counter those suggestions, Gehad Hamdy, an Egyptian dentist who at the time was 25 years old, posted a poll on her personal Facebook account and encouraged women to share their own stories of sexual harassment.

“I went out for two hours. When I got back, I found 8,000 replies on the post, with a lot of people sharing their stories in the comments,” she said. This was the beginning of Speak Up, a platform that has since grown to nearly a million followers across social media platforms and has worked on over 700 legal cases against perpetrators of gender-based violence.

Around the world, activists like Hamdy are building movements to address issues related to gender equality and gender-based violence, providing support to those who need it while also achieving significant legal and policy changes. Often, these activists operate with limited resources and face challenges of their own around online abuse.

“Some people just can't bear to see a woman be this vocal about issues that have previously been swept under the carpet in the name of culture or religion,” said Hauwa Ojeifo, executive director of She Writes Woman, a platform that provides mental health support and services to women in Nigeria.

While digital campaigns are useful tools for reaching a large audience, on-the-ground impact in the form of support services or educational work is equally important.

“All the work that we have always done has been on the ground. Impact is not an intellectual or abstract word for me,” said Trisha Shetty, founder of SheSays India, a women's rights organization that fights gender-based discrimination through education and awareness raising.

Devex spoke with Hamdy, Ojeifo, and Shetty about what makes a successful digital campaign and how such platforms can lead to real tangible changes in women's lives.

Explore this visual story to learn more.

Visit Ctrl Shift Equality — a series produced by Devex in partnership with UN Women and the Generation Equality Action Coalitions on Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality, and Gender-Based Violence.

To learn more about the multi-stakeholder commitments made to the Generation Equality Action Coalitions, click here.