These days, social platforms have become a place where women politicians and public officials are constantly insulted, ridiculed with degrading comments, full of misogyny, sexism, discredit and hate speech. The inadmissible comments of their appearance and personality are disgusting, and such comments lead to incitement of hatred and damage to their reputation, but also contribute to creating underestimation and discrediting of women in the public discourse and women in society, in general.
On June 18, 2020, Milenko Nedelkovski posted a post on his Facebook profile with the following photo:
In this status, he tries to discriminate against Radmila Sekerinska with insulting and vulgar language. This is not the only post in which he discriminates and insults women. Women politicians are often his target.
The insults towards Sekerinska were part of his profile on June 24, 2020.
On June 22, 2020, a post appeared on his profile in which he vulgarly tried to degrade Fatime Fetai.
Unfortunately, Nedelkovski is not the only one who tries to discriminate against women through social networks. Sexual harassment and illicit communication with women are becoming a bad trend.
His comment on his Facebook profile on June 24, 2020, in which he vulgarly tried to discredit the director of the PRO, Sanja Lukarevska, became a challenge that others also tried to follow.
The vulgar vocabulary addressed at the director of the PRO was used by many in their comments, which contributed to inciting and spreading hatred and discrimination against Lukarevska on the Internet. This inappropriate post has 320 shares on social media.
Social networks and profiles of certain people are not the only thing that contribute to building a discriminatory attitude towards women in public discourse. Unfortunately, in creating the communication image aimed at public discrediting of women, some portals also contribute.
For example, the portal Expres.mk on June 6, 2020, published an article with a vulgar title: THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND “SEX COORDINATION”.
We remind you that hate speech, according to the legal framework in the country, is considered a crime.
There is a provision in the Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination that “Harassment and degrading treatment is a violation of the dignity of a person or a group of persons arising from a discriminatory basis and which has a purpose or a result to violate the dignity of a particular person or to create a threatening, hostile, degrading or intimidating environment, approach or practice.“
This is considered hate speech. Hate speech should be sanctioned.
The F2N2 team believes that this way of communicating in which gender discrimination is applied is wrong and inadmissible. Discrimination and negative public discourse directly contribute to creating an atmosphere in which women’s participation in public life and women, in general, is ridiculed. Hate speech is not only a violation of certain rights but also a violation of society as a whole. Such communication creates a hostile and humiliating environment for all women. In the 21st century, that is unacceptable and also punishable.
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This project was funded in part through a U.S. Embassy grant. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the implementers/authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government.
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