If you're anything like me, you surely spent the better part of quarantine down a rabbit hole in apps such as Tik Tok and Instagram. If you did, then you may have heard of a "trend" that was passed around in which numerous celebrities and people alike posted black and white selfies of themselves, captioning it #ChallengeAccepted. Flooded with photos from the Kardashians to Jennifer Aniston, these candid pictures are part of a lighthearted, empowering movement to allow women to inspire and support each other. However, the origins of this trend are more somber than they seem.
There are a few conflicting theories on how it started, but a major part of this challenge is actually intertwined with femicide victims in Turkey. Femicide is the killing of women by men just because they are women. Turkey is one of the top countries when it comes to femicide. In 2019, there were over 500 recorded femicides and many more left unrecorded. According to @stopfemicide, "The government and the justice system does nothing to counter these crimes. They treat it as nothing more than a slap on the wrist. In fact, they are trying to abolish the Istanbul Convention which is a human rights treaty to protect women from domestic violence." So what exactly does this have to do with #ChallengeAccepted? According to multiple sources, in Turkey, people wake up every morning to a black and white photo of a women who has been a victims in this horrendous act on Instagram, the television, or the newspaper. This Instagram trend is just a new cycle of it catering a different purpose.
All in all, while this challenge has grown into a way for women to lift up and empower one another, it is still important to know where it came from. Femicide is a enormous problem in Turkey, and it needs to be stopped. You can have a part in this movement by donating to organizations such as KADEM and NGO or signing petitions to demand for a change. In fact, you will be able to help by simply educating yourself. As this situation worsens, it is up to us to stop it. If we continue to ignore gender-based violence and femicide, we are effectively supporting it.
SOURCES
@stopfemicide on Instagram