DVAW IN CONFLICT ZONES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
were forced into marriage and made to leave football, while others were banned from participating by
their families after hearing offensive and shaming comments.
These patterns have found fertile ground in patriarchal cultures that use religion as a shield. Such norms
have made these behaviors socially acceptable, even among ordinary citizens raised in environments
implicitly hostile to women and fearful of their advancement in public life.
In Iraq, the government itself has played a role in targeting prominent women. According to research,
in 2023 the Iraqi Ministry of Interior launched a platform called Balagh (“Report”), inviting citizens to
report what it described as “low, immoral content that violates Iraqi societal values and traditions.”
Soon afterward, a committee was formed to monitor this content, prompting concerns from human
rights advocates that the platform could be used to suppress free expression and intimidate bloggers
critical of government policies.
According to the digital rights organization INSM, 44 legal actions were taken over the past two years,
appearing to disproportionately target women—especially those who defy traditional social
expectations. This reflects a broader regional trend of restricting women's rights under the pretext of
morality and public order.
Contrary to the government's stated intentions, the platform was used to target influential figures in
the digital space following a wave of incitement and hate speech—particularly against Iraq’s community
of bloggers and fashion influencers. Among those arrested during this wave were two women: Asal
Hossam and another who goes by the name “Um Fahad,” both of whom were active on TikTok.
Even the news of the Iraqi YouTuber and blogger Tiba Al-Ali being strangled to death by her father was
followed by a surge of hate speech against the victim herself. The backlash included defamatory posts,
incitement, and attacks on her honour, all rooted in victim-blaming and attempts to justify the violence
committed against her. Tiba had left Iraq to escape her brother, who had raped and assaulted her
multiple times, as she stated on her YouTube channel. She returned to Iraq after repeated efforts by
her family to persuade her to reconcile and come back—a return she expressed great joy about on her
social media accounts. She was killed shortly after.
The demonization of women and the stripping away of their human rights is a result of the turmoil in
these countries, where violence permeates every level of society. In such environments, victims often
adopt the role of oppressor toward those more vulnerable than themselves — and so women, being
more vulnerable than men, become targets of layered and compounding violence. This violence is then
rationalized and blamed on the women themselves.
Blackmailing women in socially fragile environments is also a widespread phenomenon. In Syria, for
example, where the war has led to the emergence of camps inhabited solely by widows and divorcees—
commonly referred to as "widow camps"—tens of thousands of women and children live in conditions
that make them targets for various forms of digital violence, such as blackmail, defamation, and
cyberbullying. These women are seen as a vulnerable group, unable to defend themselves. According
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