One of the days, a 16-year-old teenage girl was kidnapped in an Arab country on a highway in Kentucky in the United States.
The girl consulted with an Arab next to them on the road with a sign spread on the Tik Tok application for victims of domestic violence. The man understood that the girl needed help, so he called the police and the kidnapper was arrested.
– This gesture or sign is famous on the Tik Tok application, and it spread very widely during the Corona period during periods of home quarantine, which caused an increase in cases of violence against women around the world.
– The sign is like the one in the picture attached to the post, and it is simply that the girl or man spreads her left hands in front of the camera, folds the thumb inside the palm of the hand, and then folds the rest of the fingers on the thumb.
– This sign was developed by the Canadian Women’s Foundation so that women use it to report exposure to danger during times of home quarantine.
After this signal is used, whether in direct communication or on video, if a call is made, for example, the person who understands it is supposed to provide assistance in person or inform the police.
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What do we see?
The above story is very important because it shows us that even in developed countries, where women’s rights are far better than our countries, there are still problems related to domestic violence and violence against women in general.
– This is mostly because there is a chronic problem in almost all societies regarding the violence of men who have a greater ability to beat and physical repression compared to women, and because despite the availability of all official and legal means to prevent this, the prevailing culture in societies often contributes to the practice of violence against women.
– Something very important in the story, which is the means by which this story was obtained and the reference that contributed to the rescue of the kidnapped girl and to the rescue of women from domestic violence, which is Tik Tok.
Many may see Tik Tok and other social media applications are negative and have a negative role in society, but this story tells us that it can be very positive.
In Egypt, we have seen in recent times, stories that spread and received community support because of social media, pages like I speak, and pages that were used for the rapists of Vermont and others, which contributed to supporting women who were subjected to rape and violence and obtaining part of their rights in light of the fact that in Egypt there are still litigation systems Justice has major problems in this type of case.
– We see in Egypt at this stage contradictions, positive rulings against harassers and rapists who will be punished, and rulings that acquit people, such as what happened in the case of mass harassment of a dead girl, Ghamr, in which the lawyers judged the defendants with imprisonment and a fine, while the defendants themselves took a normal innocence.
– This type of contradictory rulings tells us that the judicial system in Egypt is still not adapted or unwilling to deal with this type of case and provide deterrent judicial rulings for this type, especially in cases that clash with norms and traditions that exist in society, such as the man hitting his wife or daughter for example.
– But with time, we believe that the legal and judicial system in the country is developing, and this is due to societal pressure, which is an important part of the social media, and that is why it is very important to follow the developments that are taking place outside, like the story of this hand gesture.
We hope that with time, women will have more protection against violence, and men in Egyptian society will realize that violence towards a wife, sister or daughter is inhumane and must stop.
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A hand gesture on Tik Tok saves women around the world
