Presidential Advisor and prominent National Democratic Congress (NDC) figureJoyce Bawah Mogtari says being a female politician in Ghana is a daunting and emotionally taxing journey.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, following the release of a new report on “Abuse of Women in Politics”, she noted that women in politics face disproportionate levels of abuse.
According to the report, WhatsApp is the most common platform for such attacks.
Ms Mogtari recounted her own experiences of verbal abuse on social media, lamenting the personal toll it has taken on her and her family.
“Have you not even heard me for example, even on TikTok and other things, people jubilating that one female didn’t get a certain appointment against a male counterpart, people even talking about your wig, I saw photos of me.”
“Our kids suffer, our partners suffer, our siblings have jobs and because we are in politics they lose their jobs because of us. There are a lot of things ongoing, there is a great deal of it. It is not easy at all,” she added.
She revealed that the attacks not only affected her but also had a psychological impact on her young son, underscoring the far-reaching consequences of online harassment.
“When we come into this space, we suffer as much as our families, we suffer as much as our siblings, we suffer as much as our partners, our children. I have had my son call me from college once and say mummy, did you see this, can you imagine this guy talking about you? He was a teenager, he was 17 by then.”
“While we are trying to heal ourselves and trying to accept all these, we have to also make room for how we will get our own kids to cope, it is not an easy terrain at all,” she added.
She called for greater public education and awareness to curb the abuse of women in politics, stressing that ending such practices is essential to encouraging female participation in leadership and safeguarding the dignity of women in public life.