Since the anti-discrimination student movement for quota reform in July 2024, women have played central roles as organizers, coordinators, and online campaigners. But a year later, many of these women are facing coordinated cyber-harassment and deepfake attacks, aimed at silencing and discrediting them.
A new Rumor Scanner report found 32 misinformation campaigns targeting at least eight women activists between January and September 2025. Most content used AI-generated or deepfake videos portraying women in fabricated and sexualized contexts. Farzana Sinthi, one of the most visible faces of the movement, was targeted in 15 fake videos, while Umama Fatima faced seven separate smear campaigns. North South University student Nafsin Mehnaz was attacked in five, three of which claimed to show “offensive” footage.
Other activists — Samia Masud Mom, Tilottama Iti, Sabrina Afroz Sebanti, Athina Tabassum Meem, and Anika Tasnim — were also targeted. The report further documented 16 cases of impersonation, where random women’s images from Bangladesh, India, and abroad were falsely circulated as “July movement coordinators.”
Rumor Scanner noted that misinformation against women activists has become a tool of political intimidation. In April, viral videos featuring a fabricated activist named “Rubaiya Yasmin” spread widely across social media — though no such coordinator exists. “These attacks are strategic,” said NCP Senior Joint Convener Samantha Sharmin. “If women activists are harassed like this, others will fear joining. The goal is to silence us.”
The wave of digital abuse underscores a growing crisis of gendered disinformation and cyberviolence, where women in public life — especially those demanding justice and equality — face targeted humiliation and systemic attempts to erase their voices.
Bangladesh Feminist Archives 