Cyber violence is a major worldwide problem that has arisen with increased use of the Internet, smartphones, and social media. This study presents an overview of cyber violence against women in Egypt.
Our results revealed that nearly half of the participating females experienced different forms of cyber violence throughout the last year with about half of them reporting multiple times of exposure. The most common forms were cyber harassment and cyberstalking represented in the following (receiving images or symbols with sexual contents, insulting e-mails or messages, receiving offensive or humiliating posts or comments, indecent or violent images that demean women, and threats of physical or sexual violence).
Our findings are lower than those of Arafa and Senosy (2017) who found that 52.9% of females participating in their study experienced cyberbullying with 69.9% reporting more than one-time exposure. They also reported that cyber harassment was the most common form. But compared to our population, their participants were university students representing specific age, and also, they conducted the study in a single governorate in Egypt.
Consistent with our result, several studies reported cyber harassment and cyberstalking for being the most common forms of cyber violence against women. A survey by Battered Women’s Support Services found that about one third of the participated women had experienced online harassment or cyberstalking (West 2014). Also, research by the African Development Bank in Kenya found that more than one third of the respondents had experienced online harassment, and another third received personal hate speech, cyberbullying, and trolling and contacted by imposters (African Development Bank Group 2016).
In the current study, social media platforms were the most common way of exposure to cyber violence. This is in agreement with the Pew Research Center report that found online harassment more prevalent in some online environments than others, and that most of the incidents occurred on social networking sites (Duggan et al. 2014).
Regarding the offenders in our study, they were unknown for 92.6% of the victims. Duggan et al. (2014) reported that the perpetrators were anonymous for half of those who had experienced online harassment. On the contrary, The Association of Progressive Communications’ (APC) research project “End violence: women’s rights and safety online” found out that half of the perpetrators were known (APC Women’s Rights Programme 2015).
In this study, out of the 11 known offenders, 10 were males. Alike, Pasricha (2016) found that 85% of their survey participants reported that the incidents were perpetrated by men or under accounts with a male name. Also, women’s rights organizations’ research in three of the Nordic countries (Iceland, Denmark, and Norway) described perpetrators as being typically men (Jóhannsdóttir et al. 2017). Concordant with APC’s research project results, our results also revealed that the known offenders were either a current or former partner or the victim’s relatives, co-workers, or friends.
This study revealed that the most common impact of cyber violence on the victims was the psychological, followed by the social, then the physical and economic impacts. It also pointed to many psychological effects including the most common: anger, worry, and fear, and the gravest—suicidal thoughts. Similarly, West (2014) found that 65% of their survey respondents reported being psychologically affected. Moreover, Lenhart et al. (2016) found that women were more likely than men to be angry, worried, and scared.
Regarding the female response to the cyber violence incidents in this study, they commonly responded by blocking the offender, reporting contents to platforms, and changing their contact information. Likewise, previous studies showed that the same finding (African Development Bank Group 2016; Duggan et al. 2014; Pasricha 2016). Surprisingly, none of the victims in our study reported the incidents to the police. Lewis et al. (2017) mentioned that victims might think these incidents are personal issues and their reputation might be damaged by reporting and making it public. Also, unawareness of the laws that condemn cyber violence may play a role.
In this study, about one third of the victims did not tell anyone about their exposure to cyber violence. The conservative nature of our community and the fear of shame, disgrace, or blame that may arise after disclosing their experience even to families or friends may be the cause.
About the impact of the studied sociodemographic factors on the rate and frequency of exposure to cyber violence, we found that the only significant finding with cyber violence exposure was the marital status; married females were significantly less exposed. We expect that married females are less likely to engage in social networking and that they are more careful in their social activities which make them less likely to cyber violence exposure. Moreover, offenders might think married women have more support so avoid attacking them.
Previous research showed inconsistent results in this issue. Arafa et al. (2018) and Arafa and Senosy (2017) found that the duration of daily Internet use significantly associated with exposure and frequency of exposure to cyber violence. Also, Winkelman et al. (2015) found that age significantly associated with exposure and they reported that women who had been threatened via text or instant messaging were significantly older compared to those who were not victimized in this area.