Saudi Arabia: Trolling is weaponized against women journalists and dissidents. Lebanese journalist Zahra Hankir was trolled over dismissing an invitation to moderate “Women20 engagement group”
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Saudi Arabia: Trolling is weaponized against women journalists and dissidents. Lebanese journalist Zahra Hankir was trolled over dismissing an invitation to moderate “Women20 engagement group”
September 11, 2020, Saudi Arabia —Lebanese journalist Zahra Hankir was viciously attacked on twitter with trolling and defamed cartoons following her dismissal of the Saudi invitation to host the women20 engagement group. The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns this new incident of online harassment against yet another woman.
On September 10, 2020, Zahra wrote a tweet elaborating that she received an invitation to moderate the women20 engagement group in Saudi Arabia in October 2020 but she turned it down in solidarity with women human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia like Loujain Al-Hathlol and others.
Saudi accounts trolled her over this tweet; name-calling her, attacking her comment on Saudi Arabia. The trolls had infuriating and misogynist tweets. Many mentions used pictures of garbage in Lebanon and Beirut Blast to make fun of her or belittle her position. A cartoonist named Fahd published a cartoon for Zahra inside a garbage pin.
Women20 is an annual summit launched in 2015 by the Turkish presidency to ensure gender considerations are mainstreamed into G20 discussions and translate into the G20 Leaders. Ironically this year, this summit is organized in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi authorities are hosting this engagement group while they target and imprison women human rights defenders and political dissidents like Loujain Al-Hathlol, Samar Badawy, and others. Trolling is becoming the main method to silence and target women journalists in the cyber world. It varies in its strategy between physical threats, misogynist comments, insults, defamation, belittling, and many other forms.
CFWIJ has flagged the issues of trolling and cyberattacks on women journalists in many countries. Recently we have launched a campaign to support women journalists in Pakistan against similar practices and have documented 2 cases of trolling and online attacks on women journalists by Saudi accounts in the past two months. It’s defaming how cyberspace is turning into a dire experience for women journalists.
Zahra is a Lebanese British journalist and editor. She used to work for Bloomberg News, BBC, VICE, and Aljazeera English. Her work covers a wide spectrum of topics in economy and culture. The Coalition For Women In Journalism applauds Zahra for standing with women human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience. We stand with Zahra against the vicious attacks that are impacting press freedom and are being used widely to target and silence women journalists.
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The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world, and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.
Follow us on Instagram @womeninjournalism and Twitter @CFWIJ. Our website is WomenInJournalism.org and we can be reached at press@womeninjournalism.org
