Research Findings
Zimbabwe Peace Project
Mal-information
Mal-information is when genuine information is shared to cause harm, often by moving
information designed to stay private into the public sphere. The ultimate objective of
mal-information is to tarnish the image of a woman who is in politics so that she loses
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public confidence and support and so that she ultimately becomes un-electable. Some of
the women who participated in the focus group discussions told ZPP that they had their
phones hacked and their private conversations posted publicly on social media. These
conversations included their political strategies and tactics, thus giving unfair advantages
to their political opponents, who are mostly male. Others stated that they had the most
intimate details of their private life also posted on social media. This did not only result in
loss of political capital, but created dents and in worst case scenarios, altogether damaged
the fabric of their family relations. One female participant told ZPP that she had her HIV
test results posted on WhatsApp groups for the constituency she was contesting. She said
screenshots of her conversations with her intimate partners were also released to the
public, particularly to the WhatsApp groups of potential voters. In all the cases of malinformation that ZPP documented, the perpetrators were male political opponents.
Another woman told ZPP in the focus group discussions that her political opponents told
potential voters at a rally that she has five children with different fathers.
Body shaming
Body shaming refers to the action or practice of mocking or stigmatising someone by
making critical comments about the shape, size, or appearance of their body. Women in
politics are attacked on the basis of their bodies, their looks, their hair, or the way they
dress, rather than the substantive content of their political ideas.
The
most
frequent
body
shaming
comments
detected from social media include “you are
shapeless”, “you are formless” and “you are ugly.”
Pictures of women are distorted to add beards,
pimples and other unappealing features, posted
“Every name you
can think of to
describe how bad I
look, I have heard
it.”
and reposted on social media. The comments
dehumanise women, likening them to animals such as frogs and chimpanzees. Women
who have darker skins are accused of being lazy to bathe while those with big bodies are
likened to big animals such as elephants and hippopotamuses.
It is nearly impossible for women to participate in politics in Zimbabwe as candidates,
voters and activists without their bodies being shamed and their appearances being
sexualised. The president of LEAD, Linda Masarira, who is perhaps the biggest recipient
of online trolls, has been described as an ugly woman who does not want to bathe. Images
of her turned into cartoons and caricatures have been circulated all over the internet.
Another prominent form of body shaming is ageism, that is, discrimination against older
people because of negative and inaccurate stereotypes.
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