Fatoumatta: As we mark the 2025 edition of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we confront a rising frontier of harm of digital violence, which disproportionately affects women and girls. This year’s theme, UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls, calls for urgent, collective action to address online harassment, abuse, and exploitation. To truly meet the moment, we must also reframe how we advocate, whom we include, and how we speak primarily in the Gambian context, where digital violence is not abstract but a real, rampant issue impacting women and girls specifically, requiring our inclusive and empathetic approach.
In The Gambia, digital violence is not abstract. It is real, rampant, and inflicted across gender lines, with women and girls often facing targeted harassment and exploitation. Cyberbullying, trolling, and the non-consensual sharing of nude and explicit images, often in retaliation or revenge, have become normalized in our toxic cyber relations. Political differences are weaponized online. Private lives are exposed. People are recorded without consent and humiliated publicly. Both women and men are victims. Both genders are perpetrators. However, the public discourse often fails to reflect this complexity, especially the specific vulnerabilities faced by women and girls.
Fatoumatta’s reflections from 2020 remain vital: advocacy must be framed with empathy, not antagonism. When campaigns are perceived as “women vs. men,” they lose their civic power. Most Boychilds, when approached with clarity and respect, understand the stakes. They are not the enemy; they are part of the solution. Digital violence thrives on division; our response must model unity.
This year, let us challenge tech companies, governments, donors, and educators to act and encourage ourselves to communicate better, because collective effort empowers everyone to make a difference and reinforces our shared purpose to end digital violence.
Fatoumatta: Let us UNiTE not just in name, but also in strategy, storytelling, and solidarity, because establishing clear metrics and sharing success stories inspires hope and demonstrates tangible progress toward ending violence for everyone
