It all started two days ago when an actress Alyssa Milano tweeted to initiate a social media campaign against Harvey Weinstein to encourage women to speak up about sexual harassment and share their views using the hashtag ‘#MeToo’. Harvey Weinstein was accused of rape and sexual assault by a number of A-list actresses.
Alyssa simply asked her followers on Twitter to write “Me Too” as a reply to her tweet if they have ever been sexually assaulted or harassed. More than 60 thousand people have replied with many women sharing their own distressing stories since she had posted this tweet.
If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/k2oeCiUf9n
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017
Many Hollywood celebrities and many popular women’s rights activists took a step to support this campaign and shared their own horrifying experiences. Evan Rachel Wood revealed that how the experience had caused her to ‘shut down’.
Being raped once made it easier to be raped again. I instinctually shut down. My body remembered, so it protected me.
I disappeared. #metoo— #EvanRachelWould (@evanrachelwood) October 16, 2017
This campaign vigorously spread to the other parts of the world and even actresses from Italy were tweeting about it.
Women of Pakistan are also seen on the frontline of this campaign. From famous celebrities to journalists to politicians, many women took part in this campaign to encourage women to speak up against sexual harassment and extremism.
Journalist Reham Khan and ex-wife of Imran Khan regretted the country’s treatment of harassment cases in a tweet from her official account,
“In Pakistan, women will not be believed if they talk about sexual harassment. Their own family & in-laws will blame them instead.”
Things got interesting when Ayesha Gulalai claimed that Imran Khan asked his supporters to through acid on her face.
I’m a politician from Pakistan. My party head Imran Khan harassed me. He is running from investigation now. #MeToo https://t.co/byBUzr0RIU
— Ayesha Gulalai (@AyeshaGuIaIai) October 17, 2017
A journalist Rabia Mehmood also shared her sentiments in her contribution to the online campaign,
“#MeToo. As a child and as an adult. Took me hours and WhatsApp/FB chat reassurances from friends to be able to post this. Still not easy.”
Although the campaign remained live on Twitter and thousands of Pakistani users tweeted using #MeToo for past two days yet some women have a different point of view, they believe that women should find their harasser and expose them on their social media accounts.
Instead of writing “me too” on your FB walls and twitter feeds, find your harasser and write “you too” on his.
— Bina Shah (@BinaShah) October 16, 2017
Twitter is the driving force for social media activists which lead them to speak up against terrorism, extremism, harassment and such other cruelties. In Pakistan trends like these will cause awareness in society and will also empower the community to stand for their rights.
