Over the weekend, you may have spotted a flood of black and white photos of women spreading across all social media platforms, especially Instagram. Well, it turns out it all started to raise awareness of the plight of women in Turkey.
Women have been posting black and white photos of themselves under the hashtag #ChallengeAccepted; there has also been a variety of accompanying slogans and hashtags such as “female empowerment” or “women supporting women.”
The idea is to take a black and white selfie, load it up to Instagram or Facebook with a strong message of solidarity or empowerment, and then tag your friends to get them to do the same.
Numerous celebrities have got involved with the likes of Natalie Portman, Kerry Washington, Kristen Bell, Ivanka Trump, and Khloe Kardashian, all posting black and white pics.
So how and where did the challenge begin?
It appears that the challenge first began in Turkey and was part of a particularly crucial social campaign. Turkish women recently began sharing black and white photos with the hashtag #womensupportingwomen to raise awareness about injustices and violence against women in their country.
Turkish philanthropist, Zeycan Rochelle, explained to CBS News that there is a tragically high number of murders among women in Turkey as a result of domestic abuse. The authorities regularly release back and white photos of the latest victims.
This fact led to women in Turkey, spreading awareness of the situation by posting black and white photos of themselves to indicate that they could be the next victim.
The challenge began in Turkey but went global
Reality TV star Khloe Kardashian got in on the act and posted her own black and white selfie. She wrote: “To all my Queens- Let’s spread love and remember to be a little kinder to one another.”
The challenge has since morphed across the globe into a show of solidarity for all women. The current challenge received criticism from some quarters who believe the pics have clogged up social media at a time of crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It is not the first time black and white photos have been used to raise awareness of an issue. In 2016, similar style pics were used to raise awareness for cancer.
Previous challenges on Instagram have not had such serious origins.
Earlier this year, many folks took part in the First Photo challenge, which involved traveling down memory lane by posting the first photo taken of you and your significant other along with a current pic.
This challenge led to some very adorable stories.
Before the first photo challenge, there was the Until Tomorrow challenge, which involved posting an embarrassing, silly, or daft photo of yourself to Instagram and leaving it there for twenty-four hours.