Guwahati: Following a surge in the number of femicides in Turkey this week, an Instagram campaign was started urging women across the globe to stand in solidarity with the women that were lost.
If you happened to scroll through the photo-sharing platform Instagram for the last two days, your feed would have been flooded with black and white photos of several women with #ChallengeAccepted and #WomenSupportingWomen.
If you think that it is a local trend, you are greatly mistaken and would be surprised to know that it is part of a global campaign that is going on worldwide. Many international celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Gabrielle Union, and Kristen Bell shared their monochrome pictures showing solidarity to the women community all over the world. Indian celebrities like Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Sonam Kapoor, Bhumi Padnekar, Shilpa Shetty, and several others also joined in the campaign on Instagram.
The 'Challenge Accepted' campaign requires a woman to post a black and white picture of her and nominate other women to accept the challenge with hashtags #challengeaccepted and #womensupportingwomen.
Though the campaign received many supporters, it has also received flak for losing the importance of how it all started. The American University Turkish Cultural Club shared a post on Instagram tracing the roots of the campaign. "Over 1000 women have been officially killed in gender-based violence since 2010. Then came this year. The combined effects of deepening toxic masculinity, social media trolling, a tanking economy, and COVID-19 quarantines have led Turkish women into their bloodiest year on record," read the post.
Turkey is one of the top countries in terms of femicides. Also, the Turkish government is trying to abolish certain aspects of the Istanbul Convention, a human rights treaty that protects women against domestic violence.
The post further read, "A deeply conservative government has discouraged or strangled outcry, activism, and awareness surrounding the issue."
The campaign was started in the week following a surge in the number of femicides in Turkey. Highlighting the significance of posting a black and white photo, another relevant post read, "Turkish people wake up every day to see a black and white photo of a woman who has been murdered on their Instagram feed, in their newspapers, and on TV screens. The black and white photo challenge urges all women to stand in solidarity with the women we have lost."
Gouri, one of the participants believes that this campaign will have a significant impact in stopping the atrocities against women. She said, "About ninety percent of women will not raise their voice against physical or sexual abuses that they face. The black and white photo challenge gives an opportunity for women to raise their voices."
On the other hand, some of the participants are still unaware about the relevance of the "I never thought this campaign is inspired by such a serious issue," says Darsana, another participant who was unaware of the cause of the campaign. She is now happy that she joined the campaign.
It needs mention here that around 4 million posts have come from women across the globe in support of the campaign.