Nasra Bishumba
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
When popular gender activist Juliette Karitanya wrote a tweet suggesting that Rwandan men need to wear deodorant more often, she did not anticipate the backlash that would follow.
This single tweet, written back in October 2019, would go on to completely change how she interacts online. At first, Karitanyi, also a feminist, says that the comments were general but soon after that, they escalated into personal attacks on her looks, her family, and her sex life among others. “It wasn’t supposed to be serious.
I thought that maybe we would agree to disagree but soon enough, I realised that this tweet had been taken personally by many people. The comments were cruel. They wanted me to back off, but I was determined not to be pushed around by social media bullies,” she says.