Gendered Harassment and Trolling No law in Bahrain prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex, gender identity or sexual orientation (Human Rights Watch, 2019). In this environment of political repression, online gender-based harassment and trolling targeting women with violent and sexual attacks is prolific. Human rights activist Maryam Al-Khawaja has been subjected to harassment including violent rape and death threats, and has also been the target of countless defamation campaigns using fake photos (Nyst & Monaco, 2018). Al-Khawaja has been subjected to gendered and sectarian trolling (Figure 4), such as being called a ‘Fatat Motaa’—which has become a common sexual slur used to target Shiite women. Such occurrences are not infrequent, with human rights activist Ebtisam al-Saegh also being threatened on Twitter with rape, and threats that videos of her torture and sexual assault during her 2017 detention would be released online if she did not end her online activism (Freedom House, 2019). Freedom House (2019) reported that a woman arrested in May 2019 for insulting the King over social media was subject to severe abuse during detention, which ultimately caused her to suffer a breakdown and need to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. 38