Rabat – As Sexual Violence Awareness Month comes to a close, the global conversation reveals the evolving and pervasive reach of sexual violence.
From the ongoing fallout of the Epstein case to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, the mechanisms of sexual exploitation are advancing faster than the systems meant to confront them.
At least 840 million women – roughly one in three – have experienced partner or sexual violence in their lifetime, with little improvement since 2000. In 2025 alone, an estimated 316 million women faced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner.
Despite advocacy efforts, intimate partner violence has only fallen 0.2% annually for the past two decades.
Digital violence expands abuse
At the same time, technological advancements are introducing new forms of harm. The rise of accessible AI tools has dramatically lowered the barrier to creating realistic, non-consensual sexual imagery. What once required technical expertise can now be done with minimal effort, enabling abuse at an unprecedented scale.
From 2019-2023, there was a 550% increase in deepfake videos. In 2023, 98% of all deepfake videos were pornographic, and 99% depicted women. In 2025, researchers identified more than 8,000 AI-generated images and videos depicting realistic child sexual abuse, both on the dark web and on mainstream platforms.
This metamorphic element of the sexual violence compounds with already sweeping digital violence.
In Arab countries, these threats are exacerbated by social stigma and limited reporting. Around 44% of women report repeated exposure to online violence, yet many are discouraged from speaking out. Victim-blaming remains prominent, with 36% of women being told to ignore the online harassment, 23% blamed for it, and 12% subjected to physical violence from family.
Women activists and human rights defenders face even higher rates of digital attacks, with 70% feeling unsafe from sexual harassment and the same percentage having received unwanted sexual content, while 58% reporting inappropriate phone calls and unwelcome communications.
Legal gaps and rapidly evolving tech landscape
Legal frameworks have begun to recognize these challenges. Regional agreements such as the Arab Declaration on Combating Violence Against Women and the African Union’s 2025 convention formally acknowledge digital violence as a form of gender-based harm.
Morocco took steps in 2018 to criminalize the non-consensual distribution of intimate content, with penalties of up to three years in prison.
Still, enforcement remains uneven and international legal systems are struggling to keep up with the rapidly evolving AI and digital abuse.
Fewer than 40% of countries have legal frameworks around digital violence. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 25% offer legal protections.
While sexually abusive content is allowed to run rampant online, the consequences are already mushrooming. Research in South Africa found that exposure to harmful content witnessed men being 2.6 times more likely to perpetrate violence and 1.8 times more likely to believe misogynistic views.
Questionable coverage and global apathy
Despite the internationally high-profile Epstein case and the growing use of AI to create sexually explicit images using real people’s likeness, reporting on violence against women and girls is at a “pitiful” low, according to a new report.
The study analyzed 1.14 billion global news stories and found significant deficits in reporting around misogynistic harassment and violence against women, hitting a decade low in 2025 with 1.3% of all online news output.
It also analyzed the prevalence of key language in reportage. The term “violence against women” appeared in a bare 0.1% of the nearly 1 million articles related to Epstein – this contrasts a 25% prevalence for the term “victims” and 26% for “power,” “money,” “elites” or “corruption.”
The expanding list of powerful individuals connected to the disgraced financier’s sex-trafficking ring elucidates an inescapable global web of sexual exploitation and violence against girls and women.
Yet, the questionable reportage angle and broader handling of the Epstein case as a purely scandalous issue rather than a systemic issue aligns with a looming sense of apathy regarding unchecked sexual violence.
“The ‘Epstein Files’, which are suggestive of the existence of a global criminal enterprise have shocked the conscience of humanity and raised terrifying implications of the level of impunity for such crimes,” experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council said in a press release highlighting the mishandling of the files.
The challenge is no longer simply raising awareness, but confronting the systems that allow abuse to thrive. Without sustained attention and accountability, the gap between awareness and action risks becoming yet another form of silence.