In this edition of GenderIT.org, authors have focused on unpacking the impact of internet and digital rights from an intersectional feminist perspective, showcasing the everyday realities of women through feminist internet research conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Botswana, Rwanda, South Africa and Turkiye.
The edition highlights research done by partners in APC's Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN) initiative that attempts to understand online gender-based violence (OGBV) in an expansive way, by identifying interconnections of technology-facilitated violence with different countries' structural inequalities and violence, nationalism, hetero-patriarchal social and political values, homophobia, transphobia, and the dynamic flow of violence online and offline – at times almost simultaneous.
We called on feminist researchers from the global South to critically research and explore OGBV against women and LGBTQIA+, gender-diverse and queer people. The overarching research objectives were:
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To provide an insight into the absence of OGBV from the feminist discourse of understanding violence against women, and reflect on the existing gap from the perspective expanding feminist politicisation of violence against women.
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To tap into our existing network and work with feminists from the global South to address the geopolitical and contextual understanding of online gender-based violence in the field of internet research from a feminist perspective more broadly.
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To establish a global South-South conversation and collaboration between feminist researchers with the aim of strengthening and growing the interest in exploring and deeply understanding multiple levels of gender-based violence in the digital spaces.