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Andile Tshuma
For the past two weeks or so, many WhatsApp statuses, Twitter posts and Instagram feeds have been quite overrun with an assortment of black and white pictures of women.

Well known women, famous actresses, songbirds, corporates, and the not so known ordinary everyday woman.

You couldn’t navigate from Twitter to Telegram, to WhatsApp, Instagram and back, without coming across black and white selfies.

But how does a black and white vanity selfie uplift women, or empower them?

The pictures were captioned #ChallengeAccepted and they took Zimbabwe by storm over the past week.

The posts were premised on the idea of women lifting each other up and empowering other females all over.

I don’t like chain messages, but I also found myself participating in this, after I was nominated by a number of friends to share a black and white picture. Well, participants were nominating at least one woman, to post a black and white picture of themselves, and the rule was to nominate someone and keep it moving.

The past week showed that women can use hashtags for so much more. Women can stand united for a cause, beyond the hashtags.

Google says more than three million pictures have so far been uploaded, captioned #ChallengeAccepted.

While the cause has been vague in this hashtag frenzy, digital spaces can be used to empower women and girls, one hashtag at a time.

Hashtag activism is an emerging way of drawing attention to issues, and for communities with digital footprints; it works.

It is noble that women are finding more creative ways to speak with a single voice from different geographical locations around the globe.

It just shows how powerful digital activism can be, and how it can help people navigate online spaces and filter through the millions of posts that pop up each minute of the day.

While hashtag activism has proven to be a head turner and attention grabber, more could be achieved in terms of content for the hashtag. The black and white picture posted, that trended, could have been accompanied by some radical caption about any matter that concerns women, or their communities. It may have been educational material on the Covid-19 pandemic.

It could be about anything, however, I feel that something so big and so widespread should carry a message, and not just a nice selfie or portrait.

Well, one can say that the pictures celebrated diversity, as women from all tribes, races, shapes, sizes, religion joined in the wagon, creating a beautiful feed with a rich diverse catalogue of the female species. It could have been even more.

Some interesting hashtags globally have been the #BringBackOurGirls, #GirlsRising, and #WeAreSilent.

#BringBackOurGirls became a social media call rallying for Tweeters around the globe after hundreds of Nigerian girls were kidnapped by terrorist group, Boko Haram.

#WeAreSilent was made popular by young female education activist Malala Yousafzai who was standing with girls denied access to education around the world.

#GirlsRising is a global campaign for girls’ education and empowerment.

These are just a few examples of how hashtag activism can be used for something bigger than just pictures. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong about starting a sort of game to celebrate diversity with the pictures trending for days or weeks, it can be actually a pointer that the same vehicle can be used to carry a bigger and life changing message for all women.

Women in Zimbabwe and those based in the diaspora have a number of social media groups where they converge and share on a lot of things, good and bad. Ranging from fashion, handy hints, home decor ideas, love issues and on where to get the best bargains, it shows that the online space can really bring women together and a hashtag on a particular issue can be used as a thread that binds people together and brings together a lot of opinions on a similar subject.

If women could commit so sincerely to a hashtag and celebrate their diversity and beauty, imagine what could happen if hashtags were used to identify needy girls who could be “adopted” by able women; not as in to take them in, but to take over their school and material needs.

There could be a hashtag on buying dignity kits for pupils from rural schools around the country. With the same amount of energy, no girl would struggle to find sanitary wear to manage her menstrual health with dignity.

Imagine what this hashtag could do if people decided to offer practical courses or share skills online with the similar hashtags and vigour. There’s a lot that women can teach each other without necessarily going to school and paying for it. Someone can start a hashtag on teaching others to make dishwashing liquid, with a step by step guide on what to do and where to buy. Many would benefit. This is just the few things that come to mind, but some women may have even better ideas. Dear woman, you have that brilliant idea, you have that skill, create that hashtag and hook a sister up. There is truth and power in numbers.

Sisters can surely stand united together beyond just the hashtags. Hashtags must just ignite a revolution that is unstoppable, that will leave women better off and with a spirit of oneness that nobody can kill.