From Project to Movement: How Karak Sparked Jordan’s DVAW Response

From community centres and classrooms all the way to parliament, the Karak Castle Center is igniting Jordan’s response to digital violence against women (DVAW)—and showing how local action can drive national change.

Seventeen energized Jordanians sit around a meeting table at the Karak Castle Center for Consultation and Training (KCC). While the Center takes its name from a medieval castle looming nearby, the group is not talking about history—but about hashtags, hate speech, and hacked accounts. They’re the Technical Committee, a coalition of media figures, lawyers, civil society leaders, and local officials. And together, they’re supporting KCC’s groundbreaking work to combat digital violence against women (DVAW).

For KCC, the Technical Committee is a milestone achievement. It brings influential voices together to address digital safety in a uniquely structured and sustainable way. But KCC’s leadership in this space started much earlier.

Back in 2019, with support from our Salam@ team, KCC introduced the concept of DVAW to Jordan. Since then, we’ve co-designed a DVAW strategy and helped build KCC’s digital-safety expertise. Through a series of collaborations, we’ve helped equip their team to train others, handle DVAW cases safely, and connect survivors to technical, legal, and psychosocial support.

This investment paid off. By 2022, KCC had emerged as a pioneer in Jordan’s south, widely recognized as a reference point on digital resilience. From city halls to village schools, the team became known for its clear message: digital resilience is a right, not a privilege. And with this foundation in place, KCC was ready to take its work to the next level.

Scaling Up

In 2023, the KCC team dug into an ambitious new initiative: Facilitating Resilience to Support Survivors of DVAW in MENA. This is the supportive ecosystems project that The SecDev Foundation is leading with several trusted partners—including KCC—with International Development Research Centre (IDRC) support.

The aim here is to support safe and free online expression for women and girls in the MENA region, using Jordan and Iraq as pilot countries. By combining legal protection, psychosocial support, and technical education, the project aims to foster ecosystems of connected organizations and services that empower women and girls to take safer advantage of digital technology.

Since 2023, this project has enabled KCC to expand its reach, launch innovative new community initiatives, and translate its local leadership into national-level advocacy. The 17-member Technical Committee is one flagship achievement here, but it is part of a much broader effort. Other activities are reaching people across a wide diversity of communities—including women, youth, people with disabilities, and grassroots leaders—each contributing to a growing culture of digital resilience.

One of the strongest voices to emerge from this wider work is Hanadi Al-Suhaimat, a mother of a child with a disability and a representative of a civil society partner of KCC. “There were online practices and experiences that I used to treat as normal,” she says, recalling her attitude before receiving digital-safety training through the program. “But they were actually dangerous—especially for our children. My experience with KCC changed how I see the internet and my role as a parent.”

The Ripple Strategy

Along the way, KCC has trained hundreds of beneficiaries, mostly women, across marginalized groups. The team has reached thousands through awareness-raising social media campaigns, media features, and banners on municipal buildings. They have organized chats in women’s yards and special sessions in disability centers, rural schools, and youth clubs.

But the heart of the program is its “ripple strategy”: handing the torch to community-based organizations and grassroots leaders. “This isn’t only a women’s issue,” says 20-year-old Nada Al-Mahadin, a youth leader from Karak who says she’s determined to help carry progress forward. “This is about dignity. This is about not being afraid every time you open your phone.”

Nada is one of dozens trained under the Digital Safety Ambassadors program. This is one of five community initiatives that KCC launched under the project:

• Digital Safety Ambassadors: A team of 25 youth led 210 training sessions in schools, universities and community spaces—while producing 40+ online reels reaching 60,000+.
• Aware Generations: A digital hygiene campaign reached 350+ students in all ten Karak districts, with Ministry of Youth support—and news coverage taking the message nationwide.
• Your Safety Matters: Digital-safety workshops for people with hearing impairments, with unique sign-language teaching tools co-developed with the Karak Deaf Association.
• Mothers for Mothers: A safe circle for caregivers of children with disabilities that has gone on to run a volunteer helpline guiding parents on digital reporting and safety tools.
• Safe Click Mural: A mural painted by students at Al Qala’a School with digital safety tips and QR codes linking to Arabic resources—turning a hallway into a living textbook.

Each initiative generated its own wave of momentum, with everything from school requests for more training to media interviews. And participants weren’t just trained; they became trainers, leaders, and advocates in their own right.

Turning Point: From Local to Legislative

The impact soon reached beyond Karak. After a training session with the Karak Governorate Council, participants suggested bringing similar sessions to municipal councils and civil society organizations. They also encouraged making digital safety part of the institutional work plans of local councils. The council chair formally endorsed the initiative, paving the way for collaborations in eight additional governorates.

Then came the breakthrough in Amman. Earlier this year, KCC convened a closed-door session with members of Parliament under the patronage of MP Huda Naffa, Assistant Speaker of the House. “Digital violence doesn’t leave bruises,” she said, “but it silences women just the same.”

The session convened male and female MPs to address digital safety issues—from cybersecurity threats and data protection to online blackmail and hate speech. Through discussions and regional case studies, participants examined Parliament’s role in advancing digital safety and digital rights protection. Participants called for similar sessions for a wider group of parliamentarians. By the end of the meeting, the group endorsed the idea of integrating digital safety into Jordan’s cybersecurity framework.

Six Signatures, Countless Ripples

Back in Karak, the work deepened. KCC signed six agreements with local partners. Now each is driving a grassroots project focused on digital safety for vulnerable groups, ranging from women and youth to people with hearing impairments. Some adopt and expand existing initiatives, while others are all-new.

These partner-driven community projects include:

• Digital Safety Ambassadors (Madin Women Association and Ihyaa Foundation)
• Kafa (Ktherba Youth Association)
• Your Safety Matters (Jordan Candles Association)
• Media Digital Safety (Ma’an Foundation for Development and Training)

Local youth are directly driving two other projects:

• Aware Generations (Rawda Al-Omariyeen and Arwa Al-Jalamdeh) 
• My Smart Protection (Nisreen Al-Maaytah)

KCC responded to a community request by running a women-focused digital safety session under the Crown Prince Foundation’s Morning Coffee with Ladies series. Though separate from the six formal projects, it reflected the initiative’s flexible, community-driven approach.

Not Just a Project—A Movement

As of mid-2025, the project has:

• Trained 840+ people directly at training sessions, digital clinics, and peer events.
• Strengthened the capacity of 4,200+ people through awareness-raising events.
• Reached 60,000+ more through online reels produced by Digital Safety Ambassadors.
• Secured public commitments on digital safety from Members of Parliament, the Governor of Karak, and the Karak Governorate Council.

But for Esraa Al-Mahadin, KCC’s Executive Director, the most powerful metrics are the smallest: “One mother who knows how to protect her child. One girl who decides to speak out. One lawmaker who demands change. That’s where real transformation begins.”

The next phase? A national summit on digital safety, policy papers on reform, and a toolkit to replicate the model across Jordan. The Alia Network of Women Leaders, born from this initiative, is already preparing to lead.

“We’re building something stronger than firewalls,” says Esraa. “We’re building a movement.”