Feminist Peace Network

When people visit the Feminist Peace Network website for the first time, their initial response is frequently, “How can you work so intensely with these sorts of stories–they make me angry, sad, I feel overwhelmed.” Well truthfully, on some days I have the same response. But over time, I’ve found that talking about the impact of violence against women can be very empowering.

Just as in the therapeutic setting, naming the problem is a very important part of addressing disfunctional situations. Historically, the harms that are committed against women have been silenced in many, many ways and still are in many settings today. And quite clearly, if we don’t know about a problem, we can’t respond to it.

Over the last 10 years, the World Wide Web has enabled us in a hugely significant way to increase our knowledge of what is happening in women’s lives and to connect in a productive manner to stop abuses and create change. I intentionally refer to the internet with the words that the “www” in internet addresses stands for because it is precisely this web nature of the phenomena that makes this such a powerful tool.

During the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Take Back the Tech is running a campaign that focuses on the many ways that information and communication technologies (ICT’s) can be used to focus awareness and take action to end violence against women. That is something that FPN is able to facilitate on a daily basis. Let me give you several examples.

Last week I posted a story about the problem of domestic violence in China. I noticed later in the day that someone in Bosnia had visited our website and read that story. Certainly that was not a story that got any coverage in the mass media in this country and my guess is that it didn’t get a lot of attention in Bosnia either. But because I learned about it via a Chinese blog and shared it on this website, someone in Bosnia is also aware of this very significant problem that would otherwise remain almost invisible to those of us who are not in China.

Here is another example. A few weeks ago I posted a story about a radio station in Rwanda. A woman who works in the DRC saw the story and contacted me to tell me about a project she is working on. Which led to talking to a man in Australia who recently made me aware of another excellent project in the DRC.

As you can see from these examples, the internet is truly a web of connection, and that is precisely why it is so powerful and the reason that I feel enabled when I write about the misogyny that permeates our world. There is no doubt in my mind that by bringing these stories more visibility it sheds light on what issues we must address and allows us to connect in a meaningful way to work towards solutions.

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