Instagram stories: usually you associate the social media feature with slideshows of your friends’ undeniably average cooking skills or a night out you were not invited to.
One Instagram story, however, will defy all your expectations: the @lifeof_farah account was designed to shock.
Help us tell the story of Farah. Go to her #instagram profile @lifeof_farah and tap on the Play button. pic.twitter.com/Q4RnLCXNWE
— DFWAC (@DFWAC) February 9, 2017
Click on Farah’s face and she will become bruised. Tap again and she will become battered.
“Most cases of domestic abuse start with what you think is a light tap,” the harrowing series of images concludes.
“Stop the violence. Spread the word” warns the campaign, providing a phone number for Instagrammers to report abuse.
The powerful collection of pictures, which was released last month, was produced by the Dubai Foundation for Women & Children (DFWAC) in collaboration with FP7/McCann Dubai bank.
Founded in 2007, DFWAC was the Emirates first licensed non-profit shelter for domestic abuse victims, offering protection and support services to vulnerable women and children.
DFWAC is an invaluable resource in a country whose lack of a law dealing with domestic abuse, and failure to take such cases seriously, has been criticized by rights groups.
The UAE Federal Supreme Court confirmed in 2010 that under Emirati law husbands are permitted to physically punish their wives. One expatriate who sought police protection described being told by police that “in the UAE husbands are allowed to beat their wives,” Human Rights Watch reported.
In this context, DFWAC’s work, including this most recent publicity campaign, is hugely important, something that the figures attest to. The shelter dealt with nearly 200 cases of abuse in the first half of last year alone, according to UAE-based news site The National.
You can watch a striking video of the Instagram story here:
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