I am drowning under the weight of hatred: the scope and nature of technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Tajikistan

"Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) is an expanding and developing form of violence against women. The scale of TFGBV in Tajikistan is expected to grow as more women gain access to digital forms of communication and expression. TFGBV does not exist in a vacuum and the research explores if and how TFGBV differs from offline violence, the interconnections between the two and how societal and family norms relate to both types of violence against women. The ability of TFGBV to control an overall narrative on gender norms and the behavior of women is explored. We consider if digital spaces give moral crusaders power to both monitor and control women’s online presence and to give large-scale visibility to women’s offline lives through social media posts. We show how these publications can allow for intimidation, threats and violence with the aim of forcing women to conform to a stereotypical image of who and what a woman from Tajikistan should be."