#JusticeForHanna Ethiopia’s social media campaign that got justice for a raped girl
When a young girl was gang raped in Ethiopia, social media came to her defence. The harshtag #JusticeForHanna became a social media anthem in campaigning for her justice.
16 year old Hanna Lalango, was abducted from a taxi in 2014, October 1st on her way home. Hanna was captured by five men who pretended to be commuters in the public taxi she boarded. The Taxi was rerouted to a place where they would rape her over and over again for ten days. Hanna in an abandoned area in the outskirts of the city with severe wounds which claimed her life reports Addis Standard.
A lecturer at Addis Abeba University, Blen Sahilu, took Hanna’s painful ordeal to the social media.
According to Addis Standard, Hannaa was unknown to the rapists; she was a random pick, an act that could have happened to any woman. Bringing to light the alarming violence against women in Ethiopia.
A Facebook page dedicated for Hanna was set up by activists and attracted a wide attention, with over 22,000 likes the page gathered during the campaign it was converted to a page that calls for justice for women who have been violated.
A twitter hashtag #JusticeForHanna was also trending, here are some
🙌👌👍👏👏 respect !! #JusticeForHanna pic.twitter.com/IyIqJ8BPmM
— †Ethίopία̣̣ŵίt ♍ίℓka (@_SheIsEthiopian) November 30, 2014
https://twitter.com/JusticeForHanna/status/544876153174253568
https://twitter.com/JusticeForHanna/status/547463199944364033
16-Year-Old's Death Forces #Ethiopia to Confront Its Sexual Violence Problem http://t.co/QNCYvHgH2H #JusticeForHanna pic.twitter.com/FPNsQzxq7i
— Global Voices (@globalvoices) January 17, 2015
https://twitter.com/Meazit_/status/559604546637266944
https://twitter.com/Afrowomanist/status/601753564306919424
https://twitter.com/SehinSehina/status/601652942979133441
https://twitter.com/SehinSehina/status/537664044283346944
Ethiopian social media users used the platform to express their frustrations at the failure of justice. The case was then brought to a court in Dec.
The High Court in Ethiopia sentenced two of the rapists to life in prison without possibility of parole, a 3rd one for 17 years, 4th for 20 years and the fifth for 28 years, all without possibilities of parole.
Hanna’s story received scant attention from the government-run media reports Aljazeera, Hanna’s story saw the light of day thanks to social media.
