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"Lock them in, do not let them go out, then they will not post anything," a dictator is urging husbands. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov wants men to ban their wives from social media. Why? To protect family honor, of course. And also because the ladies keep complaining about stuff like child marriages to old men.
Kadyrov got all cave man on his people recently because of the public outcry following the marriage of a 17-year-old girl to a 47-year-old police chief. According to local reports, the charming groom had prevented his future bride from leaving her home, and had threatened reprisals against her family unless they agreed to hand her over.
Did I mention the police chief already has a wife? Also, polygamy is still illegal in Chechnya, but this wedding had Kadyrov's backing. Gee, why did everyone get so upset, I wonder?
News of the unhappy union spread far and wide, thanks largely to WhatsApp, a mobile messaging app. I can just hear Kadyrov now. "There's nothing wrong with forcibly marrying off a ripe, young virgin to a married man 30 years her senior. And we would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for all those meddling women on WhatsApp!"
I mean, they still got away with it. But the exposure was embarrassing.
The dictator took to the state-run television station to warn his subjects against blabbing. "Stop. Behave like Chechens. The family honour is the most important thing," he reportedly admonished. "Do not write such things. Men, do take your women out of WhatsApp."
Oh yes, do. Do take your women off WhatsApp and any other social media space where they actually have a voice. Good luck with that!
What this really shows is how powerful women's voices are becoming, particularly thanks to social media. It's become a (relatively) a safe place for women to express themselves, especially in parts of the world where women have no public voice at all. In fact, women have been largely shaping the world of social media.
I think men like this dictator are scared. And they should be. The gig is up. Women on social media are a force that cannot be held back, at least not forever. Technology is too slippery, women have too much to share, and we're witnessing how quickly things can change through social media, every day. Taking women out of WhatsApp is a joke.
Do you think it's possible to get an entire country's women off of social media permanently?
Image via SP-Photo/Shutterstock
Image may be NSFW.
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