Rethinking feminist activism in the digital era : a case study of a social media campaign from Bangladesh

Contemporary feminist activism’s deep engagement with social media and popular culture is offering women opportunities to mobilise for women’s rights. The introduction of hashtag activism (e.g. #MeToo, #ShoutingBack, #Followed and #Grabbed) as a form of feminist movement to address sexism, misogyny, rape culture and sexual harassment (SH) in public spaces, has taken social media by storm in recent years. Although, these hashtag activisms were introduced in the West, they soon arrived in the Global South. Women in Bangladesh welcomed and actively participated in #MeToo on Facebook. Motivated by #MeToo, a number of Bangladeshi women also introduced a women-only Facebook group titled ‘Nari’: Mohila Bus Service Limited, translated to English as ‘Women’: Ladies Bus Service Limited. This group aims to ensure women’s safe travel by introducing women-only bus services to the major Dhaka city routes. The existing SH literature (Rahman, 2010; Rahman & Nahrin, 2012; Zohir, 2003) fails to address this new dynamic of women’s movement in Bangladesh. Therefore, this study uses a qualitative research approach that include ten life story interviews to explore the nature of this Facebook group’s initiative to address SH on public buses in Dhaka.