Her story: Ending online violence against women in Northern Ireland

The Open University’s Professor Olga Jurasz will open this Imagine Festival event by sharing results and insights from the largest-ever study into online violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland. 

Professor Jurasz will be joined by Sophie Nelson, Policy Officer at HEReNI, Tahnee McCorry, CEO of White Ribbon NI, and Leigh Lyle-Toal, Co-Vice Chair of Belfast Pride. You’ll learn about the impact that online violence has on women and girls in Northern Ireland, and societal attitudes towards it, and join a vital conversation about how to tackle this modern phenomenon. You’ll hear first-hand accounts of how Northern Ireland’s organisations and the government are working towards making a change in this space. 

Meet the panellists: 

Olga Jurasz, professor of law at The Open University. Her research expertise is in law and policy responses to violence against women (including online violence) and feminist approaches to governance of online spaces. She is a leading voice in the field of law and violence against women. She published her research widely, including two books: Online Misogyny as a Hate Crime: A Challenge for Legal Regulation (Routledge 2019) and Violence Against Women, Hate and Law: Perspectives from Contemporary Scotland (2022). Professor Jurasz's expertise has been used by governments, international organisations and third-sector organisations to influence changes in law and policy in areas of online violence against women, criminal law, online communications and State obligations concerning violence against women. She is a member of the TechUK Violence Against Women and Girls Digital and Tech Working Group and regularly appears in the media as an expert commentator on contemporary matters in her research areas.  

Sophie Nelson, Policy Officer at HEReNI, a community organisation and registered charity based in Belfast that supports lesbian and bisexual women and their families to improve the lives of L & B women across Northern Ireland. Sophie will focus on the prevalence of gender-based violence within the LGBTQIA+ community and the services we need to safeguard LGBTQIA+ people from domestic and sexual abuse. 

Tahnee McCorry, CEO of White Ribbon NI, a global movement to end male violence against women. Tahnee will explain how White Ribbon NI engages men and boys to stand against online abuse, first by addressing the issue of VAWG online and the culture which perpetuates it, and touch on bystander intervention and how this looks online.  

Leigh Lyle-Toal, Co-Vice Chair of Belfast Pride Festival, the biggest LGBTQIA+ festival on the island of Ireland. Leigh will focus on online bullying and business acceptance of trans women.