2026/05/06 by Fiona Wong · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics #Sex work and related issues #Sociology and Norbert Elias
paper · doi:10.1080/09589236.2026.2668462
openalex publication_date 2026/05/06 · openalex created_date 2026/05/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/16
Many news have been reported on sexual violence against female protestors in the world, such as Tunisia, Yemen and Mexico. The Hong Kong anti-extradition movement is also no exception. However, scholarship on violence against women in this movement has remained underexplored. Thus, I address this gap by exploring how female protestors experienced and navigated state-condoned sexual violence. I argue that such violence creates dual oppression against women as a systemic and symbolic tool, targeting both their gender and political agency under repressive regimes. While such repression generated fear and anxiety, the findings challenge that fear does not necessarily demobilize dissent. Instead, emotional responses to gendered repression were socially mediated and politically reinterpreted. Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 65 participants of the movement between November 2022 and September 2023, I show that protestors employed adaptive mobilization strategies, shifting across frontline, logistical, and care-based roles. Feminist organizations transformed personal experiences of abuse into collective claims for gender justice through advocacy and legal education initiatives. My paper sheds light on how female protestors adopted strategic silence around sexual violence, which emerged as a politically situated choice shaped by movement priorities and risk calculation, navigating the intersection of gender-based violence and political activism.