AB Moosa, Avalon Group. Photo: Karolina Komendera

World Health Organization statistics reveal that one in three women worldwide experiences physical or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner. And the picture only got worse during the pandemic. According to UN Women, since the pandemic began, data and reports from people on the frontlines highlighted how all types of violence against women and girls, especially domestic violence, intensified. Reports indicated that domestic violence increased threefold in many countries, and since many of these cases go unreported, the scope of the problem is likely to be far worse. This abuse might be physical, sexual, verbal, psychological or economic, and it happens on the streets, in homes, and increasingly, online. Women and girls are overwhelmingly the targets of online violence, including physical threats, sexual harassment, stalking, sex trolling, revenge pornography and exploitation.

Organisations and politicians have appealed for a collective global effort to address gender-based violence (GBV). While technology facilitates some acts of GBV, as indicated above, its power can also be harnessed to address this plague.