Introduction

Cultural norms, structural exclusion, and insecurity often constrain women’s participation in peacebuilding processes in Northwestern Nigeria. However, digital communication technologies, particularly mobile phones and social media platforms, have opened new avenues for women to voice their concerns, mobilize communities, and advocate for peace. This article critically examines how women leverage these technologies, drawing on feminist pragmatics and critical digital studies to analyze women’s digital agency in a region marked by violent conflict, gender inequality, and institutional neglect.¹ The case of Hamdiyya Sidi, an 18-year-old activist whose digital advocacy led to her prosecution, illustrates both the potential and perils of women’s digital activism.

Conflict and Women’s Struggles

Conflict in Northwestern Nigeria, including Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, and Sokoto states has profoundly impacted women. Economic dislocation, displacement, gender-based violence, and psychological trauma define their lived experiences.² Women have lost livelihoods as farmers, traders, and professionals; many have become dependent on inconsistent humanitarian aid.³ Social services, like education and healthcare, have collapsed, leaving women and children vulnerable.⁴

Coping mechanisms center on survival, food, shelter, and safety, often overshadowing the need for psychological healing.⁵ As one displaced woman put it: “We do not have time to think about trauma; what matters is finding food for our children.”

Digital Communication as a Peacebuilding Tool

In Northwestern Nigeria, women are increasingly turning to digital platforms to advocate for peace, expose injustice, and mobilize communities. From social media campaigns to WhatsApp peace networks, for example, women-led initiatives (such as the Arewa Me Too movement and groups like #SecureOurLives) have used digital platforms to expose abuses, advocate for survivors, and demand institutional accountability. #SecureOurLives is a grassroots campaign led by women in Zamfara and Kaduna states, calling attention to mass displacement and banditry, successfully compelled regional media coverage and local government responses.

There is also #JusticeForHanifa,  largely led by women educators and mothers: this was a movement demanding justice for a murdered schoolgirl in Kano, resulting in expedited prosecution of the accused and reforms in school safety protocols.

Lastly, digital campaigns by the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) use social media to challenge gender-based violence and promote women’s inclusion in peace dialogues, despite frequent online harassment of its spokeswomen. These digital engagements have opened new spaces for inclusion in peacebuilding processes long dominated by men. Yet, women’s increasing involvement in digital platforms comes with its own risks: online activism exposes women to surveillance, harassment, and political reprisals, while digital spaces themselves remain shaped by broader patriarchal and authoritarian structures. Despite these hurdles, women navigate these complex digital terrains, amplifying their voices for peace even as they confront new risks in the struggle for security and justice.

In this context of layered vulnerabilities, digital communication serves as both an alternative and complementary peacebuilding tool. Women use platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and X to:

  • Build solidarity networks by creating virtual safe spaces for mutual support, information-sharing, and collective advocacy;
  • Challenge exclusionary narratives by using digital storytelling to counter portrayals of women solely as victims;
  • Mobilize public opinion and drive policy change by coordinating digital campaigns that highlight insecurity and demand action.

Hashtag campaigns such as #SecureOurVillages, #NoWomenNoPeace, and #WomenForPeace have trended regionally, pressuring local governments to take action.

Case Study: The Criminalization of Hamdiyya Sidi’s Digital Activism

A striking illustration of both empowerment and danger is the case of Hamdiyya Sidi  Sharrif.  Hamdiyya is an 18-year-old resident of Achida, Wurno Local Government Area (LGA), Sokoto State, who rose to prominence in November 2024 for her critique of Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s handling of insecurity and the humanitarian crisis affecting internally displaced persons (IDPs). Using social media (notably TikTok and Facebook), she condemned the escalation of banditry and urged victims to “occupy the Governor’s Office” to demand government action. Her online advocacy quickly went viral, leading to her arrest on charges of “inciting disturbance” and “using insulting or abusive language.”6

Following her detention, a coalition of 46 NGOs, including the Voices for Inclusion and Equity (VIEW), Amnesty International, and other women’s rights organizations, petitioned the Inspector General of Police to secure her release and protection.7 Reports soon emerged that Hamdiyya was abducted by armed men on November 13, 2024, beaten, thrown from a moving motorized tricycle, and later subjected to threats against her person and her lawyer. Amnesty International called this a “calculated attempt to intimidate” her and demanded for an official investigation.8

Despite briefly posting an apology retracting her call to occupy government facilities, she remains under legal restraint as of mid-2025, with ongoing legal proceedings against her in Sokoto’s Sharia court.9 Her personal plight has made her emblematic of citizen activists in Nigeria who challenge injustice but face criminalization, violence, and sustained threats in response.

In summary, Hamdiyya is a self-identified individual activist who, without formal affiliation to any women’s organization, emerged as a vocal advocate against insecurity and the sexual exploitation of displaced women in Northwestern Nigeria. Utilizing social media platforms, she challenged government inaction—an especially bold stance given her age and conservative community background. Her digital activism, however, triggered harsh state responses, underscoring the risks faced by women who engage in online advocacy. Yet her case also sparked public solidarity. Hamdiyya’s experience reflects a broader pattern among female activists in the region, who endure cyber bullying and intimidation with limited institutional protection, highlighting both the promise and peril of digital resistance.

Theoretical Engagement

Feminist pragmatics reveal how women’s digital discourse negotiates patriarchal structures while performing acts of resistance, solidarity, and identity construction.10 In conflict-affected regions like Northwestern Nigeria, where formal peace mechanisms often exclude women, digital communication becomes a site where women not only speak but act. Women’s language used online, whether through hashtag campaigns, WhatsApp groups, or Facebook posts, enacts what Holmes (2006)11 calls collaborative leadership, shaping shared narratives of resilience and resistance in the face of marginalization. This is particularly evident in Hamdiyya’s case: her online utterances functioned both as critique (calling attention to governance failures) and as mobilization (urging action from victims of violence), thereby exercising agency in a context of the silencing of any forms of dissent or demands for accountability.

However, feminist pragmatics also highlight how these acts of speaking out occur within power-laden structures that constrain meaning and reception. Hamdiyya’s words were reinterpreted through patriarchal and state security lenses, as threats to public order rather than legitimate political speech, demonstrating how women’s digital discourse is policed and politicized.

Similarly, critical digital studies remind us that technology is not neutral but shaped by social, political,12 and economic forces13 that reflect and reinforce existing power structures,14 Digital spaces are also double-edged: they amplify marginalized voices, create new publics, and foster trans-local solidarities, but they also function as sites of surveillance, regulation, and repression. The very tools that enabled Hamdiyya to speak also became instruments for tracking, arresting, and ultimately silencing her. As Couldry and Mejias (2019)15 argue, the data colonialism of digital platforms means that women’s expressions are not only politicized but commodified, exposing them to exploitation and control.

In this context, digital communication by women in Northwestern Nigeria must be understood as both emancipatory practice and precarious performance, constantly negotiating the tension between visibility and vulnerability, agency and control.

Cultural and Structural Barriers

Our research project, “Beyond Victims, Repostioning Women for Active Participation in Peacebuilding Processess in Northwestern Nigeria” (2025), funded by POSSIBLE Africa, highlights how deep-seated patriarchal norms and restrictive cultural practices limit women’s formal engagement in peace processes.16 Digital activism partially circumvents these barriers, but not without risk. Women face online harassment, infrastructural challenges (e.g., poor connectivity), and legal frameworks that criminalize dissent.17

Moreover, cultural perceptions that women “should not engage in security matters” persist, leading to both formal and informal exclusion from decision-making bodies.18 Even when women speak out online, their voices are often dismissed as emotional or irrelevant.

Linking Digital Activism to Broader Peacebuilding

Digital communication can complement women’s roles as informal mediators, caregivers, and community mobilizers. Women have historically played crucial roles in fostering social cohesion, monitoring security threats, and advocating for displaced families.19 Digital tools allow them to scale these contributions, linking and bringing local struggles to national or regional attention. However, without formal pathways for integrating digital advocacy into peacebuilding structures, online efforts risk remain largely symbolic.

 Moving Toward Protection and Inclusion

Hamdiyya’s story vividly highlights the stakes of digital engagement for women in conflict-affected contexts. To support women like her and promote safer participation in peacebuilding, there is a need to:

  • Establish legal protections for digital expression, ensuring dissent is not criminalized as incitement.
  • Expand swift-response mechanisms—legal, medical, and security—for activists facing threats.
  • Strengthen digital literacy and security training, especially for young women and first-time activists.
  • Formalize collaborations between grassroots activists, NGOs, and international partners to amplify and protect digital voices.

Only through such concerted efforts can activists like Hamdiyya and their peers continue their digital advocacy without fearing repression or harm.

Conclusion

Digital communication represents both promise and peril for women peacebuilders in Northwestern Nigeria. While it amplifies voices and creates new advocacy spaces, it also exposes women to state control, harassment, and legal reprisals.Hamdiyya’s experience is not an isolated incident but reflects a broader trend of digital activism among women in Nigeria, particularly in the Northwest, where insecurity and gender-based violence persist. Women-led initiatives, such as the Arewa Me Too movement, have used digital platforms to expose abuses, advocate for survivors, and demand institutional accountability. These activists and organizations have amplified marginalized voices, shaped public discourse, and pressured policymakers. However, their digital engagement often comes with significant risks, including online harassment, cyberbullying, surveillance, and even physical intimidation—challenges that mirror Hamdiyya’s ordeal. Despite these threats, their impact demonstrates the transformative potential of digital advocacy in reshaping narratives and pushing for justice in patriarchal and insecure contexts.

To enable more women to engage meaningfully in peacebuilding, there is a pressing need to protect digital spaces and enhance the capacity of women activists to navigate these platforms safely. This involves not only legal and policy reforms that guarantee freedom of expression and protection, from state and non-state actors, but also the strengthening of networks that offer solidarity, legal support, and psychosocial care for women under threat. Recognizing digital activism as a legitimate form of peacebuilding is crucial in a region where traditional spaces often exclude women’s voices. By drawing connections between Hamdiyya’s case and those of other women activists, it becomes evident that systemic support, digital literacy, and protection mechanisms must be prioritized to foster an inclusive and resilient peace architecture in Northwestern Nigeria.

As the case of Hamdiyya Sidi illustrates, the line between activism and criminalization can be perilously thin in fragile contexts. The future of gender-inclusive peacebuilding lies in bridging digital activism with offline institutional reforms, ensuring that women’s voices, both online and offline, shape policies for and structures of sustainable peace.

Endnotes

  1. Cameron, D. (1998). Gender, language, and discourse: A review essay. Signs, 23(4), 945–973.
  2. International Crisis Group (2021). Violence in Nigeria’s Northwest: Rolling back the mayhem.
  3. Beyond Victims: Repostioning Women for Active Participation in Peacebuilding Processess in Northwestern Nigeria POSSIBLE Africa ( 2025) unpublished Study
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Premium Times (2024). Teen activist faces trial for calling out governor on insecurity.
  7. Amnesty International (2025). Nigeria: End harassment of young woman activist in Sokoto.
  8. Coalition condemns arrest of woman for criticising banditry in Sokoto” — Daily Trust (dailytrust.com)
  9. “Amnesty seeks protection for woman charged …” — TheCable (thecable.ng)
  10. Holmes, J. (2006). Gendered talk at work. Blackwell.
  11. Ibid.
  12. Winner, Langdon. (1980). Do Artifacts Have Politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121–136.
  13. Noble, Safiya Umoja. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: New York University Press.
  14. Eubanks, Virginia. (2018). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
  15. Couldry, N. & Mejias, U. (2019). The costs of connection. Stanford University Press.
  16. Beyond Victims: Repostioning Women for Active Participation in Peacebuilding Processess in Northwestern Nigeria POSSIBLE Africa ( 2025) unpublished
  17. MacKinnon, R. (2012). Consent of the networked. Basic Books.
  18. Ibid.
  19. Adamu, F. & Mekuria, F. (2020). African Security Review, 29(2), 142–160.
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