Painting the Town Purple: South African Women Mobilise Online In the Ongoing War Against GBVF
The colour purple has been the order of the weekend leading up to the G20 summit on the 21st of November 2025, with South African women raising awareness and sparking conversation online surrounding Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF). The movement has seen women and girls alike participate in online activism by using different shades of purple, from updating their profile pictures to blank purple photos to writing awareness posts coupled with purple heart emojis.
Set on fire by non-profit organisation Women for Change, the initiative was born from the organisation’s mobilisation of citizens encouraging South African women to “silence” the country with a planned national shutdown on the eve of the summit to be staged in Johannesburg.
“We call on all women and members of the LGBTQI+ community across South Africa to refrain from all paid and unpaid work in workplaces, universities, homes, and communities to demonstrate the economic and social impact of their absence,” said Women for Change on the post, outlining the plan of action for the day.
Women for Change posting about the initiative on their X account:
Almost coinciding with the G20 to be hosted by the country, the event is planned to raise awareness on the killings of women and children and also to have the scourge of GBVF officially classified as a national disaster. To back up the call, the organisation started a complementary petition on Change.org, encouraging signees to help push for GBVF to be considered a National Disaster.
The petition has since amassed over 720 000 signatures as of 10 November 2025.
Across all major social media networks, from static platforms such as Facebook and X to video-based mediums such as TikTok and Instagram, civilians have joined hands in solidarity to paint the town purple. From doing videos expressing support and sharing their own stories of being sexually assaulted to posting purple pictures, some blank while others are customised, women have been and continue to be vocal about the issue at hand.
Grammy-winning star Zakes Bantwini joined the movement by sharing a new profile picture in line with the colour scheme.
Grammy winner Tyla has also participated in the movement, with a fan account noting that she has changed her Instagram and TikTok display wallpapers.
@misheline_ posted a variety of purple-themed pictures to go with the initiative, saying: “My mentions are filled with Purple Hearts and Purple Profile pictures!!!! Here are a few other profile picture options I’ve found online and in the mentions.