GoKawiilMuslim manosphere influencers target women online, harassment victims say
Women who run or appear prominently on social media platforms, including Mariam, administrator of a 400,000-member Facebook group for women in the UAE, report receiving a surge of unsolicited messages from men policing their dress, behavior and visibility online. These messages, often framed in religious terms, range from demands to cover up to outright sexual harassment, prompting some women to disable messaging features entirely. The pattern is linked to a subset of the broader online 'manosphere' that recasts antifeminist, male-grievance ideology in Islamic religious language.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The report suggests that global manosphere narratives about male grievance and female overreach are being localized and given religious legitimacy, which could make them harder to challenge or moderate on platforms. This may compound existing difficulties social media companies face in distinguishing harassment from religious or cultural speech, particularly in regions where such framing carries social authority. The toll described—administrators silencing their own messaging tools—hints at a chilling effect on women's public participation online that platforms have not clearly addressed.
- A Facebook group admin with ~400,000 members reports sustained harassment mixing religious moralizing with sexual harassment.
- The harassment is tied to a 'Muslim manosphere' that repackages broader antifeminist manosphere ideology in religious terms.
- Targeted women describe mental health impacts and have resorted to disabling messaging features to cope.
Source: wired.com — Maysaa Ajjan, 2026-10-11
Published there as: “Inside the Muslim Manosphere Policing Women Online”
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