Over the last few days, the colour orange اللون البرتقالي  could be seen on many Twitter accounts in the Arab world. The reason was to raise awareness about  لنشر الوعي حول domestic abuse against women العنف المنزلي ضد النساء. Many hashtags were created in Arabic as a response to the UN campaign :حملة الأمم المتحدة “Unite to end violence against women” اِتّحدوا لإنهاء العنف ضد المرأة that is celebrated on the 25^th Of each month. “Orange the world” or “لوّن العالم برتقاليًا”  is the slogan for this campaign هو شعار هذه الحملة .

 

The first part of this post gives some background about the campaign, in addition to a short report of how Twitter users in the Arab world took part in this digital campaign, using a number of hashtags. The second part (next week) will look into more details about the images and posts that were shared about the topic of violence against women.

 

*Before we look at how people responded to this campaign, let’s find out more about the campaign’s slogan first.

 

Why orange? لماذا اللون البرتقالي؟

 The colour orange was chosen تم اختيار اللون البرتقالي  to “symbolize a brighter future, free of violence” كرمز لعالم مشرق، خالي من العنف

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How did it all start? كيف بدأ الأمر؟

The large number of responses to this campaign was particularly triggered by a post from an Arab girl who spoke up about the domestic abuse she has experienced at the hand of male family members  على يد أفراد (ذكور) من العائلة (see a screenshot of the post below).

 

 

“I’m Zainab from Bahrain and today I decided to break my silence قرّرت أن أخرج عن صمتي and talk about my miserable childhood, which still affects me until today.

From the age of 9 till 16, I was subjected to constant rape اغتصاب متكرّر by 3 people”

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By the 1^st of July بحلول الأول من يوليو, many female Twitter users demonstrated their solidarity with Zainab  أظهرت الكثيرات من مستخدمات تويتر تضامنهم مع زينب through changing their profile picture من خلال تغيير صور حساباتهن الشخصية to ones that have the colour orange  إلى صور تحمل اللون البرتقالي.

The main focus of these responses was on the importance of believing the victim  تصديق الضحية as many users tried to discredit Zainab’s testimony حاولوا تكذيب (شهادة) زينب

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 Hashtags

Here I list some the three main hashtags (the Arabic ones as well as their English equivalents) around the campaign.

 

The first hashtag is >

 

#لون_العالم_برتقاليا

#orangetheworld

 

The other hashtag is >>

 

#لا_تسكتي

#dontbesilent

 

This hashtag was created in order to encourage women to speak up لتشجيع النساء على التحدث and end the culture of silence إنهاء ثقافة الصمت  that increases battered women’s suffering التي تزيد من معاناة النساء المُعَنّفات .

 

 

*Translation of the writing on the photo >

“It’s time to break the silence barrier”.

 

The final hashtag is >>

 

#نصدق_الناجيات

#WeBelieveYou

 

This Arabic hashtag translates exactly as: “We believe the survivors” (appears on the photo below).

 

 

*Below is another photo (left one) that expresses the same idea.

 

*Translation of the writing on the photo > تحدّثي نحن نسمعكِ، ونصدّقكِ

“Speak up, we hear you and believe you.

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See you next week for the second part of this post 🙂