Investigating experiences of Afghan female university students towards online harassment

Abstract

The principal aim of this study was investigating experiences of Afghan female university students towards online harassment, its effects and coping strategies. Also, it aimed to study the differences of participants’ experiences by age, class, and first language. The data were gathered from 150 undergraduate female students of Takhar University randomly via a Likert scale questionnaire containing 36 statements. SPSS version 25.0 was used for analyzing the data. Descriptive statistics were employed to determine the frequency and percentage. Inferential statistics one way-ANOVA test was also used to determine the difference in the experience of participants by age, class (year of study), and first language toward the issue. The outcome of the study revealed that 54–81 percent of the respondents that forms the majority have not experienced online harassment. Also the finding denoted that the effects of online harassment on the victims are considerably low because the majority of them have not experienced online harassment. Besides, the result indicated that forty five percent of the partakers agreed to use some coping strategies against online harassment such as: talking face to face with the harasser, talking online or via phone, reporting the case to the administrator of university, searching Internet for advice, asking their teachers to include online harassment preventive matters in their teachings’ programs, cleaning the received online messages, ignoring and keeping silence, deleting from their contacts individuals that they do not like to keep contact with them, and sharing the cases of harassment with their friends or family members. Moreover, the outcome represented that there is not any considerable distinction in the experience of participants by age, class, and first language concerning online harassment.

Keywords:

• Online harassment
• Afghan
• effects
• students
• coping strategies

1

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Online harassment as an undesirable phenomenon has become a dilemma for humanity. It causes threatening, bothering, fearing and other challenges for the victims. Nowadays, university students in Afghanistan utilize Internet and social media tools for various purposes. Many individuals in Afghanistan think that Afghan female university students who have access to Internet and social media are harassed by males online considerably. Hence, this study aimed to explore the experiences of Afghan female university students towards online harassment, its effects and coping strategies. The finding of the study indicated that the majority of the participants have not experienced online harassment. Also the finding revealed that the effects of online harassment on the victims are low. Besides, the result showed that forty five percent of the respondents used some coping strategies like talking face to face or online with the harasser, reporting the case, cleaning the received messages, keeping silence, etc.

1. Introduction

Internet as a means of communication has engaged many young generations nowadays. Although it is used for purposes like studying, searching information, connecting to media, communicating with pals and relatives, and enjoying free time, it can be misused occasionally. Young adolescents are in a phase where they are keen to use technology, live away from home, enjoy their time with the ones they love and make novel identities. Hence, keeping attached to Internet has emerged advantages and disadvantages for the users (Arnett, 2000). According to Finn (2004), online harassment is regarded as one of the major disadvantages of Internet because it endangers the young adolescents’ safety in university campus. Online harassment is an undesirable communication which is applied to establish an atmosphere of bothering, threatening, frightening, offending, or even enmity for the victim and the harasser wants to chase the target by using digital devices. Many aspects of our digital lives can be affected by online harassment. Usually the victims of online harassment are female students who experience online harassment in different forms (Bocij, 2004). According to Jane (2017), a large number of females are targeted by visual harassment increasingly and are vulnerable to online violence victimization. Any kind of online harassment can extinguish the voices of many individual victims. Obviously, many investigations have been carried out concerning experiences of university students on Internet and its use of relevant matters in other universities of the world, but regarding the experiences of female university students about online harassment separately, less studies were carried out (Niemz et al., 2005; Peluchette, 2008; Pujazon-Zazik & Park, 2010; Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008). Also, there was not done any study specifically about experience of Afghan female university students towards online harassment at universities of Afghanistan to reflect the experiences of female university students towards the issue. Contradictory female violence and online harassment reports through social media means in Afghanistan have increasingly drawn the attention of national and international communities on one hand, and common use of Internet and social media networks by Afghan females on the other hand require conducting a study to detect the experience of Afghan female university students about online harassment. Therefore, this study is significant to be carried out to illustrate the Afghan female university students’ experiences on the topic so that a real picture of the online harassment forms and its relevant matters among female university students be presented to national and international readers to fill the gap regarding the issue. The underlying purpose of the current study is to explore the experiences of Afghan female undergraduate students towards online harassment, its effects and coping strategies.

1.1. Research objectives

1. To determine common online harassment forms among Afghan female undergraduate students.

2. To identify the consequences of online harassment on Afghan female undergraduate students.

3. To discover the strategies Afghan female undergraduate students use to cope against online harassment.

1.2. Research questions

1. What are common online harassment forms among Afghan female undergraduate students?

2. What are the consequences of online harassment on Afghan female undergraduate students?

3. What strategies do Afghan female undergraduate students use to cope against online harassment?

2. Literature review

2.1. Definition of online harassment

Online harassment is an undesirable communication which is applied to establish an atmosphere of bothering, threatening, frightening, offending, or even enmity for the victim and the harasser wants to chase the target by using digital devices. Many aspects of our digital lives can be affected by online harassment (Finn, 2004; Orfan et al., 2022). It is worthy to define some forms of online harassment relevant to the intended research topic.

2.2. Terms and definitions of different famous forms of online harassment

Table

Terms of online harassment	Definitions
Cyber stalking	Cyber stalking is explained as 1 :) messages of text, emails, or immediate messages which are aggressive or frightening; 2) aggressive remarks shared online, 3) private videos or pictures posted online or via cellphone (Van Der Wilk, 2018).
Cyber harassment	Cyber harassment is defined as the experiences of females in sexual harassment which encompasses 1) uninvited vivid aggressive sexual messages or emails; 2) improper aggressive actions on Internet’s space or social media like Facebook; dislike utterance, insulting emails and physical or sexual threatening of targets (Van Der Wilk, 2018).
Cyberbullying	Cyberbullying is one kind of cyber violence that is considered as cyber harassment that the majority of its affected targets are minors without consideration of gender. It encompasses the reiterated offensive virtual treatment aiming to scaring and destroying the personality and honor of somebody that occasionally leads the affected people to distress and self-murder (Van Der Wilk, 2018).
Cat fishing	Cat fishing when an individual on the internet makes a false identity for the aim of beginning a relationship is called Cat fishing (Seven types of online harassment to watch out for infographic, 2019).
Doxxing	Doxxing when a person shares someone else’s private information online aiming to harass the victims is called doxxing (Seven types of online harassment to watch out for infographic, 2019).
Trolling	Trolling when a person sends uninvited comments through online which are argumentative or accidental for the purpose of stimulating sentiment is called trolling. Fighting or inconvenience of individuals can be the results of a troll who is concealed in the back of their screen (Seven types of online harassment to watch out for infographic, 2019).
Online impersonation	Online impersonation when an individual uses the name of someone else online without his/her satisfaction aiming to bother, deceive, scare, or threaten the targeted person is named online impersonation (Seven types of online harassment to watch out for info-graphic, 2019).

2.3. Commonness of online harassment on campuses of university

Online harassment has become a dilemma for students of university. A survey was conducted by European Union Agency on university female students regarding their online harassment experiences. The study also investigated the participants’ age, year of study and first language. The result of the study depicted that 77% of females had the experience of online harassment. Also the finding revealed that the students who were above twenty years of old and were in first year of the university experienced online harassment in a higher rate than others. However, regarding the first language impact, there was not any considerable difference (Van Der Wilk, 2018). Hess (2014) who studied the experiences of university students concerning online harassment. The researcher found the highest possibility of females report concerning online harassment than males, and also the finding showed that the participants who were freshmen with above twenty year’s old ages experienced online harassment in a vast extent than other participants. Also, a survey was conducted in America to investigate the experiences of university students on online harassment. The study also sought the participants’ experiences by age, year of study and first language. The result revealed that more than 40% of those who used Internet have experienced some types of harassment related to online. Regarding the experiences of the participants by age, year of study and first language, the study finding showed that the respondents with ages below thirty years of old experienced online harassment more (Lenhart et al., 2016). Also, Angus Reid (2016) and Akramy and Aiyaz (2022) believe that women experience intensive kinds of offenses like sexual harassment, stalking and being called different sensitive given names more than twice than men in public. He adds that the danger of harassment is greater for those females like scholars who are exposed to public or use technology to carry out their tasks. The result of an identical survey in Canada represented that 31% of those who use social media networks had the experience of online abuse (Angus Reid, 2016).

The illustration of a survey of females by American Association of University in (2001) showed that girls more frequently experience sexual abuse than males in a range of 56 percent vs. 40 percent. An investigation by Staude Müller et al. (2012),depicted that 68 % of participants had experienced online sexual abuse that the majority of them were females. Based on a survey of university lectures at a university in Canada that was conducted by Cassidy et al. (2014), the finding is indicative that female university lecturers experienced online harassment in a higher extent than males ranged from 22% females compared to 6 percent of males. The females declared that the majority of the bothering and abuse that they experienced online committed by their coworkers or pupils via social media, email, or course sites. A study that targeted 439 university students revealed that 38% of the participants knew individuals who had experienced cyberbullying which is a form of online harassment, about 22% of the respondents had suffered from cyberbullying themselves, and nearly 9% had done cyberbullying on other individuals. Pena (2011), conducted a survey on students at Indiana University. He found that 42% of the respondents knew individuals who had the experience of cyberbullying, while 22% of the participants declared that they themselves had been cyberbullied. Based on another research that was carried out at New Hampshire’s University by Finn (2004), finding exposed that from 339 students about 15% of them received immediate messages and emails that were offensive abusive, or frightening for them. Buhi et al. (2009) conducted a survey on females of graduate and undergraduate students at a southeastern university. The researchers found that nearly 50% of participants experienced receiving uninvited emails from harasser which is one instance of stalking. The outcome of another research indicated that household’s harsh treatment due to technology enhancement raised the access of hunters to threating, frightening and harassing the victims (Southworth et al. (2007). A survey by the HM Government in (2021), discovered that 20% of females received unsolicited sexual messages, 14% of them had the experience of unsolicited touching which was not sexual, and 6% of them had the experience of chasing and threating. A survey was carried out by Amnesty International and Ipsos Mori in 2017 on the topic of online harassment of females between ages 18–55 in the New Zealand, Poland, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, US, Italy, and UK. The finding revealed that about 21% of the participants had the experience of online harassment. The outcome of the survey demonstrated that 59% of the participants got online violence from individuals that they were not known to them, and 18% of the females obtained online harassment from the side of their prior or present partners (HM Government,2021)

2.4. Online harassment’s effects

There are abundant negative effects of online harassment. Online harassment can result in physical aggression, weak academic work, education leaving, and self-murder (Willard, 2006). Online harassment or cyberbullying has root to severe causes like educational challenges, family challenges, less self-respect, school mistreatment and offensive treatment, but the most negative results are violence and self-murder (Hinduja & Patchin, 2008). The actions of online harassment pass well over the area of prevalent physically presence harassment or bullying due to dissimilar common harassment or bullying. Online harassment can take place not just in the educational settings, but in any locations like home where people have access to technology (Shariff & Hoff, 2007; Stover, 2006; Strom & Strom, 2005). Based on conducted studies’ reports, online harassment or cyberbullying might not happen more frequently than directly and physically, about 70% of students in America suffered from online harassment or cyberbullying (Juvonen & Gross, 2008; Wang et al., 2009).

According to the findings of Amnesty International, females that faced online abuse, 41 percent of them had the feeling of threat to their physical safety. 20% of females in the United Kingdom and more than 26% in America in the same study stated that they had the feeling that the security of their family was in danger after they experienced online harassment on social media networks. While 50% of females reported that they suffered of stress, worry, lack of self-reliance, less self-respect or fear of assault. Based on a research regarding online harassment in 2014, the percentage of the participants who had suffered from online abuse formed 14% that felt extremely concerned, whereas 35% felt very or slightly worried. Scholars comply that online harassment encompasses long lasting impacts on safety and mental health of adults and raises the danger of self-murder (Van Der Wilk, 2018). Based on a research report in 2014 by Pew Research Center on online harassment, nearly a third of the females that faced virtual abuse and threats to physical bothering had the sense that their honor had been harmed. Online harassment such as dislike utterances, offensive messages and other common forms affect the victims physically and psychologically that needs compensation and is costly for the victim and also community. Several effects of online aggression on females are such as serious physical problems, problems related to minds’ safety like distress, unrest, stress, lack of life hope, and self-murder (Van Der Wilk, 2018).

According to Van Der Wilk (2018), online harassment and offensive words on females, damage females permanently and prevent them from their liberty, honor, and basic rights. As a result, it affects the society and cost for it heavily generally. Online aggression enforces females to limit them from using Internet because of the widespread types of harassment they experience virtually. When the internet is not safe, females cannot use it freely and become affected socially and economically. Online harassment puts negative effects on females’ online activities, and prevents them from enough involvement in the societies’ operations.

2.5. Strategies to cope with online harassment

People who experience online harassment will naturally try to apply some strategies to cope with harassment. The females who have experienced the bitter taste of harassment get engaged using some strategies for prevention and repulsing it such as negotiating, societal strategy, looking for defense, and denying (Knapp et al., 1997). A study was conducted via interview on females who had the experience of both online and offline harassment by Scarduzio, Sheff and Smith in Scarduzio et al. (2018). The finding indicated that there were three avoidance ways categorized like active-emotion concentrated, problem-concentrated, and passive emotion-concentrated. Also Schwarzer (2000) suggested four strategies to cope with online harassment: responsive, prohibitive, proactive and prospective. Responsive struggling strategies are a form of strategy that is applied after the victim has experienced the harassment. Prohibitive struggling strategy is related to possible unclear harassment. Proactive strategy refers to aim-management and the resources’ collection for enhancement than harassment. Prospective coping strategy is the one that is expected to be done for the coming harassment (Biggs et al., 2017). On the other hand, Folkman and Lazarus (1980), catagorized harassment struggling strategies into two forms such as problem-concentrated and emotion-concentrated strategies. They believed that focusing on problem can change the impacts’ source wheres focusing on emotion’s struggling strategy can manage the sentiment that accompany the attitude of harassment’s effect.

2.6. Education strategy

Education of students at schools and colleges is helpful for altering perceptions to aggression on girls and women. For making the education useful and helpful in this regard, the teachers who teach must include proper educational and directive points in their training programs. The positive impacts of education on decreasing females’ violence have been felt for some longer-times. For instance, a study was conducted on students aged between 14 and 15 years old in Canada. It concentrated on roles of gender, violence related to dating and non-offensive issues resolving. The finding was illustrative that students rarely experienced violence related to their relationships’ dating for two and half years (HM Government, 2021).

2.7. Blocking the harasser

A study carried out on girls pupils by Vohlidalora in 2011. The result showed that some of the girls had courage to drive away an offender. This capability for struggling and managing the circumstance makes the females powerful and confident to either hamper the offender or remove likeliness of the harassers’ violence in the future (Akramy & Aiyaz, 2022; Cairns, 1997; Rabinowitz, 1996; Vohlídalová, 2011).

2.8. Seeking advocacy and reporting harasser

The majority of females who tasted a severe form of harassment could not dare to request assistance from educational organizations to apply formal actions for coping with the harassment (Rabinowitz, 1996; Kelley & Parsons 2000). When other entire choices ar not helpful, seeking advocacy harassment strategy is chosen as the final source of help. The females who have expereinced harassment might not report the case because of fearing that if the educational organization’s reprimand’s systems are not robust afterwards the reproting might worsen the situation and will help experinceing of further types of harassment(Fitzgerald et al.,1995). Strategies for struggling agiants harassment at university level displayed that pupils do not want to seek advocacy and report the harassment cases to the university officals because they are either afraid of getting targeted secondlay, lack of confididence in the university managament and feeling that they will be blamed for wrong claims (Vohlídalová, 2011). According to Wood(1994) and Cairns (1997), pupils report the cases of harassement that they have experienced in case they become assured that the issue will be considered strictly and the officials will not regard them liars. In addition, pupils are afraid of reporting the cases of harassment to professors because of punishing them (Dziech—Weiner 1984; Fitzgerald et al. 1995; & Rabinowitz, 1996).

2.9. Disregarding and denial of the harasser by victim

Based on the assumption of Quina (1996), the majority of the females who experience any kind of violence, particularly sexual harassment, choose silence regarding the severe stressful events that they have experienced. It is not just because of not reporting to officials. The reason is that the victims do not like to speak concerning this evil issue to others. According to Rabinowitz (1996), most of the victims find ignoring the harasser and their experince of the issue as a solution option although this choice might make the recreastion of violence durable and the harassers feel that they will be free of the punishment. The victim might choose the option of the harasser ignoring after he or she meausres the strenghts and weaknesses of the issue completely and ultimetly silence choosing regarding the issue might be accpeted as the best strategy to cope it. The negative effects of this strategy might be fewer than talking regarding it with others (Cairns, 1997). Mellgren et al. (2018) conducted a research to find out the commonness of sexual violence, its effects and motivation that female students of Sweden were not eager to share their expereinces of sexual violence. The outcome of the study revealed that 98 percent of the respondents did not share their expereinces of sexual harassment. Another research was done on the same issue by Dhlomo et al. in Dhlomo et al. (2012). They found that from 136 female student participants, only 31% reported their expereinces of the events.

2.10. Societal backing

It is apparent that most of the victims females seek help from their family members and pals as an impressive strategy to overcome any kind of harassment that they expereince. Fitzgerald et al. (1995), stated that getting help from pals and family memebrs strategy is enourmousley used as one of the most preferred modes by female victims to struggle against sexual harassment. This strategy mainly is originated from the willing not to arouse problems compared to combating the harasser or reporting. Also Fisher et al. (2003) explained that females who expereince any form of violence,specially sexual harassment like to share it with their family members or friends instead of reporting to police or relevant authorites.

3. Research methodology

3.1. Research design

This study undergoes quantitative design. For data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics like one-way ANOVA test was used. For collecting data, 36 statements were developed in a questionnaire form. The questionnaire was four-point likert scale (See Appendix A). The questionnaire containted two segments. The first part sought the participants’ demographic profile (i,e. age, class, and first language). The second section concentrated on 36 statements sought common online forms, effects and strategies the participants cope with. The study partakers required to respond the questionnaire items ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

3.2. Participants of the study

The study respondents were 150 Afghan female undergraduate students who were pursuing their higher education in various majors at Takhar University. The attendees were from freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes. Table 2 reveals, 26% of the participants were freshman, 32% sophomore, 7.3% junior and 34.7% senior. They were choosen randomly. Table 1 displays, nintey one (60.7%). The study participants were aged between 15–20 years old. Fifty-eight (38.7%) participants were aged between 21–25 year old while one (0.7%) was aged between 26–30 years old. The study participants were speakers of Dari, Pashto, and Uzbek languages. As it is illustrated in Table 3, the majority of the respondents were Dari speakers(64.7%).

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of participants toward online harassment by age, class and first language

Frequency and Percentage		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Age	15–20	91	60.7	60.7	60.7
	21–25	58	38.7	38.7	99.3
	26–30	1	0.7	0.7	100
	Total	150	100	100
Class	Freshman	39	26	26	26
	Sophomore	48	32	32	58
	Junior	11	7.3	7.3	65.3
	Senior	52	34.7	34.7	100
	Total	150	100	100
First Language	Dari	97	64.7	64.7	64.7
	Pashto	22	14.7	14.7	79.3
	Uzbek	31	20.7	20.7	100
	Total	150	100	100

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of participants toward online harassment by age

ANOVA
Experience
	Sum of Squares	Df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Between Groups	.632	2	.316	1.632	.199
Within Groups	28.461	147	.194
Total	29.093	149

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of participants towards online harassment by class

ANOVA
Experience
	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Between Groups	1.078	3	.359	1.872	.137
Within Groups	28.016	146	.192
Total	29.093	149

3.3. Data collection instrument

The researchers developed the questionnaire based on a review of literature and adaption of questionniares developed by other researchers. One part of the questionniare was adapted from Stop bugging me: An examination of adolescents’ protection behavior against online harassment, and identifying women’s experiences with and strategies for mitigating negative effects of online harassment designed by Lwin et al. (2011), and Vitak et al. (2017). The questionnaire comprised two segments. The first segment aimed to find out the demographic information of the attendees such as age, class, and language. The second section investigated the experiences of participants regarding common online harassment, effects and coping strategies among themselves. The partakers were demanded to expose their extent of agreement and disagreement based on a 4- point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3=agree, and 4= strongly agree). The researchers translated the questionnaire from English language to Dari language because the majority of the participants were not fluent in English language to comprehend the items in English very well.

3.4. Validity

The investigators passed the English questionnaire to two professors of English language to review it and give comment for improvement (See Appendix A). After having their revisions, the questionnaire was edited by the researchers. Then the questionnaire was translated into Dari language and submitted to two professors of Dari language in the department of Dari language and literature to review it so that enrich its content and accuracy (Akramy et al., 2022). After receiving the commented questionnaire from the professors, it was amended and became ready for distribution (Akramy, 2022).

3.5. Data collection procedure

Initially, a 4-point Likert scale questionnaire was partly developed and partly adapted. Then it was translated into Dari. After that, the female participants were specified. Next, the participants were asked whether they were ready to take part in the study or not. After gaining their permission, it was explained what the project was. Next, an obvious instruction was given for the attendees. Then questionnaire’s items were distributed to the participants in their classes in Takhar University. After the questionnaire’s completion, they were collected and analyzed for finding the result of the study.

3.6. Ethical issues

The researchers prepared a consent letter and distributed for the participants to indicate their agreement for taking part in the process of data collection. In addition, the participants were treated respectfully during the research. Moreover, the respondents’ confidentiality was kept safe.

3.7. Data analysis

A survey was performed on 150 female undergraduate students at Takhar University. This study was carried out to explore the participants’ experience towards common online harassment, effects, and coping strategies. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25 software. Descriptive statistics were employed to determine the frequency and percentage. Inferential statistics like one way-ANOVA was used to determine the difference in the experience of participants by age, class (year of study), and first language toward the issue. Correlation test was used to determine the relationship between online harassment and its effects.

4. Findings

4.1. Participants demographic variables

A one-way ANOVA test was conducted to explore the reported experiences of online harassment of female university students by their age (Table 2). The result showed that the P-value for the age (0.199) is greater than the alpha level (0.05). Hence, it is concluded that there is no significant difference in the experience of online harassment by the respondents’ age.

Table 3 is the result of one-way ANOVA test to examine the female university students’ experiences of online harassment by their class. The result showed that the P-value for the class (0.137) is greater than the alpha level (0.05). Therefore, it is concluded that there is no difference in students’ experience of online harassment by their class.

Table 4 is the result of one-way ANOVA test to examine the female university students’ experiences of online harassment by their first language. The result revealed that P-value for the class (0.486) is greater than the alpha level (0.05). Thus, it is concluded that there is no difference in students’ experience of online harassment by their first language.

Table 4. Descriptive statistics of participants toward online harassment by first language

ANOVA
Experience
	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Between Groups	.284	2	.142	.724	.486
Within Groups	28.809	147	.196
Total	29.093	149

Table 5 is a data analysis for correlation between students’ experiences of online harassment and their effect on them. The result showed that P value (0.486) is lesser than the alpha level (0.05). Hence, it is indicated that there was a weak positive correlation between students’ experiences of online harassment and their effect on them.

Table 5. Correlation between students’ experiences of online harassment and their effect on them

Correlations
			Experience	Effect
Spearman’s rho	Experience	Correlation Coefficient	1.000	.237**
		Sig. (2-tailed)	.	.004
		N	150	150
	Effect	Correlation Coefficient	.237**	1.000
		Sig. (2-tailed)	.004	.
		N	150	150

Note: **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The first question of the study aimed to seek commonness of online harassment among Afghan female university students. As it is depicted in Table 6, the first item presents that 68.7% and 28% of the participants strongly disagreed and disagreed sequentially that someone shared their private photos and videos online without their permission. The second item is indicative that 66.7% and 29.3% of the partakers strongly disagreed and disagreed that someone threatened them to share their personal photos and videos online. The third item displays that 72.7% and 22% of the study attendees strongly disagreed and disagreed that their non-romantic friends shared their personal messages, photos and videos publicly. The item of number four illustrates that 63.3% and 30% of the participants sequentially did not experience online rude comments. Statement number five exposes that 56.7% and 37.3% of the study partakers strongly disagreed and disagreed that someone spread evil rumor about them online. The sixth item represents that 72% and 22% of the attendees strongly disagreed and disagreed successively regarding receiving uninvited online sexual messages. The item number seven is indicative that 77.3% and 14% of the participants strongly disagreed and disagreed that they were asked by some familiar individuals to send them sexual messages or their personal naked photos. The item eighth reveals that 66.7% and 24.7% of the study partakers sequentially strongly disagreed and disagreed that strangers asked them online to meet them offline. The statement number nine signifies that 78.7% of the study subjects have not experienced that a stranger created fake online account by their names to insult, threaten, or deceive people. The item tenth indicates that 54.7% and 19.3% of the attendees one after another have not experienced receiving online love messages aiming to make love relationship with them. The item number eleven shows that 55.3% of the subjects strongly disagreed that someone sent them unpleasant messages even after they asked them to stop sending the messages. The statement twelve is exposure that 42% of the participants strongly disagreed and 30.7% agreed that someone added them to social media groups without their consent. The item number thirteen represents that 77.7% and 16.2% of the study partakers strongly and normally have not experienced calling their names offensively online. The last item of Table 6 indicates that 81.3% and 15.3% of the participants strongly disagreed and disagreed threatening to death by someone through online means.

Table 6. Descriptive statistics towards common online harassment

No	Statement	SD	D	A	SA
1	Someone else shared my private photos and/or videos online that I did not permit them to post.	68.70%	28.00%	2.70%	0.70%
2	Someone threatened me to sharing my private photos or videos online in case I did not establish love relationship with them.	66.70%	29.30%	2.70%	1.30%
3	I had a friend (non-romantic) who shared my private message, videos, or images publicly.	72.70%	22.00%	4.70%	0.70%
4	Someone made rude comments about me online.	63.30%	30.00%	4.70%	2.00%
5	Someone spread an evil rumor about me online.	56.70%	37.30%	4.00%	2.00%
6	Someone sent me uninvited sexual messages.	72.00%	22.00%	5.30%	0.70%
7	Someone I know asked me to send them a sexual message, or naked photo of myself.	77.30%	14.00%	6.00%	2.70%
8	A stranger asked me online to meet him offline.	66.70%	24.70%	6.70%	2.00%
9	Someone used my name online with a fake account to threaten, insult, or defraud someone else.	78.70%	16.70%	2.70%	2.00%
10	Someone sent me love messages online and tried to make love relationship with me.	54.70%	19.30%	17.30%	8.70%
11	I received unpleasant messages from someone even after I told him to stop sending the messages to me.	55.30%	16.00%	20.70%	8.00%
12	Someone added me to social media groups without my consent.	42.00%	15.30%	30.70%	12.00%
13	I have been called offensive names in a public online space.	77.70%	16.20%	6.10%	0.00%
14	Someone threatened me to death via online.	81.30%	15.30%	2.00%	1.30%

The second research question intended to detect the effects of online harassment on Afghan female university students. According to illustration of Table 7, the fifteenth item reveals that 62.7% and 27.3% of the study subjects strongly and simply one after another have not lost their confidence in university due to online harassment. The statement number sixteen displays that 59.3% and 32.7% of the study attendees strongly disagreed and disagreed regarding losing their hopes to future because of online harassment. The item seventieth signifies that 66% and 26.7% of the participants strongly disagreed and disagreed with feeling of leaving university due to online harassment. The statement number eighteen represents that 72.7% of the study subjects strongly disagreed with feeling that their reputation was damaged in the society. The item nineteenth is indicative that 54.7% and 25.3% of the participants have not strongly and ordinarily felt scared one after another because of online harassment while 16% of them stated that they have felt scared. The statement number twenty reveals that 63.3% and 26.7% of the subjects strongly disagreed and disagreed that their relationship with their university classmates declined as a result of online harassment. The statement twenty first signifies that 64.7% and 24% of the attendees have not strongly and simply experienced physical threat by harassers. The item twenty second demonstrates that 82% and 15.3% have not had strongly and simply the feeling of self-murder as the effect of online harassment. The item number twenty three illustrates that 69.3% and 25.3% of the subjects strongly disagreed and simply disagreed with the feeling of living alone as the consequence of online harassment. The statement twenty four is indicative that 52% and 21.3% of the participants strongly disagreed and disagreed with losing their confidence in using Internet because of not being safe while 18.7% of them agreed with the stated item. The last item of Table 7 reveals that 62% and 17.3% of the study subjects have not strongly and simply experienced feeling depression as a result of online harassment while nearly 20% of them strongly and simply agreed with the stated item.

Table 7. Descriptive statistics toward effects of online harassment

No	Statement	SD	D	A	SA
15	I lost my confidence in university.	62.70%	27.30%	8.70%	1.30%
16	I lost my hope to future.	59.30%	32.70%	6.70%	1.30%
17	I felt like leaving my university.	66.00%	26.70%	5.30%	2.00%
18	I felt like that my reputation was damaged in the community.	72.70%	20.00%	6.70%	0.70%
19	I felt scared.	54.70%	25.30%	16.00%	4.00%
20	My relationship with my classmates at university decreased in a high rate.	63.30%	26.70%	8.70%	1.30%
21	I felt threat to my physical safety.	64.70%	24.00%	9.30%	2.00%
22	I felt like trying to self-murder.	82.00%	15.30%	1.30%	1.30%
23	I got the feeling to live out of the sight of public.	69.30%	25.30%	1.30%	4.00%
24	I lost my confidence to using internet because it is not safe.	52.00%	21.30%	18.70%	8.00%
25	I felt depressed.	62.00%	17.30%	11.30%	9.30%

The last question of the research aimed to find out the strategies that Afghan female university students apply to cope with online harassment. As it is demonstrated in Table 8, 29.3% and 25.3% of the participants strongly disagreed and simply disagreed with the strategy of blocking the harassers online whereas nearly 45% of them strongly and simply agreed with the stated strategy. The item number twenty seven is illustrative that 32.7% and 42.7% of the study attendees mostly and normally have not used the strategy of asking their teachers to include online harassment preventive matters in their teachings’ programs while nearly 32% of them strongly and simply agreed with the stated item. The statement twenty eight displays that 37.7% and 29.7% of the partakers have not used the strategy cleaning the received online messages whereas approximately 33% of the subjects strongly and simply agreed with the pointed strategy. The item number twenty nine depicts that 39.3% and 24.7% of the participants have strongly agreed and simply agreed with ignoring and keeping silence strategy for coping online harassment. On the contrary, 36% of the participants strongly and simply agreed with the stated strategy. The statement thirty indicated that 48% and 33.3% of the study attendees strongly and simply disagreed with strategy of reporting the online harassment case to the administrator of university. The statement number thirty one represents that 39.3% and 21.3% of the partakers have strongly and simply agreed that they deleted from their contacts individuals that they did not like to keep contact with them. The item thirty second depicts that 34.7% and 26.7% of the subjects have strongly and normally have not used the strategy of changing their devices’ settings to prevent harassers contact while nearly 36% of them mostly and normally used the stated strategy. The statement thirty three exposes that 44% and 32% of the attendees have not strongly and normally used the strategy of searching Internet for advice regarding online harassment. The item thirty four represents that 48% and 35.3% of the subjects have strongly and simply disagreed with the strategy of talking with the harasser online or via phone to stop harassing. The statement thirty five demonstrates that 51.3% and 34% of the study partakers one after another strongly and simply disagreed with the strategy of talking face to face with the harasser to persuade them to stop harassing. The last item of the Table 7 is indicative that 35.3% and 27.3% of the participants strongly and normally have not used the strategy of sharing the issue of harassment with their friends or family members to help them in the area whereas nearly 37% of them acknowledged that they have strongly and normally used the pointed strategy for coping the online harassment.

Table 8. Descriptive statistics of coping strategies with online harassment

No	Statement	SD	D	A	SA
26	I blocked someone who harassed me online because I did not want to hear from.	29.30%	25.30%	20.70%	24.70%
27	I asked my instructors to include online harassment preventive points in their teaching programs.	32.70%	34.70%	19.30%	13.30%
28	I filtered out received online messages.	37.30%	29.30%	20.70%	12.70%
29	I ignored it and kept silence when I was harassed online because I thought no response would lead the harasser to stop it.	39.30%	24.70%	20.00%	16.00%
30	I reported to the administrator of university when I got harassed online.	48.00%	33.30%	12.00%	6.70%
31	I deleted the person from my contacts that I did not like to keep in touch with.	24.00%	15.30%	39.30%	21.30%
32	I changed my settings so that the person could not contact me anymore.	34.70%	26.70%	22.00%	16.70%
33	I searched the internet for advice regarding online harassment.	44.00%	32.00%	14.70%	9.30%
34	I tried talking to the harasser on the internet or via cellphone to persuade him or her to stop.	48.00%	35.30%	12.00%	4.70%
35	I tried face-to-face talking with the harasser to persuade him or her to stop online harassment.	51.30%	34.00%	8.70%	6.00%
36	I shared the matter of harassment to my friends or family members to help me get rid of it.	35.30%	27.30%	19.30%	18.00%

5. Discussion

This study aimed to investigate the experiences of Afghan female undergraduate students towards online harassment, its effects and coping strategies. Also, the effects of age, year of study and first language of the participants’ variables regarding online harassment were investigated. The results of the study for experiences of participants on commonness of online harassment revealed that majority of the respondents have not experienced online harassment forms such as: sharing their private messages, photos and videos online by others, threatening to sharing their personal photos and videos online, receiving online rude comments, uninvited sexual, love and unpleasant messages, spreading evil rumor about them, asking for sending their sexual messages or personal naked photos, asking online for offline meeting, using fake online account by their names, adding them to social media groups, calling their names offensively and warning them to death. This finding contradicts with the findings of the studies conducted by Van Der Wilk (2018), Hess (2014), Lenhart et al. (2016), American Association University (2001), Staude Müller et al. (2012), Orfan et al. (2022), 2014), Buhi et al. (2009), Southworth et al. (2007), and HM Government (2021) who reported that majority of female participants had the experience of cyber harassment, particularly sexual abuse. The authors believe that Afghanistan is an Islamic country and the harassers might think that harassing female students is sin in their religion or they are afraid of being punished because sometimes the victims might complain to their faculties and lecturers.

Moreover, the result of the study regarding the effects of online harassment on victims is indicative that the effects of online harassment on the victims are considerably low because the majority of them have not experienced online harassment. Most of the respondents have not experienced losing their confidence in university, hope to future, feeling of leaving university, feeling of damaging their reputation, feeling of scared, declination of relationship with their classmates, feeling of physical threat to safety, feeling of self-murder, feeling of living alone, losing their confidence in using internet, and feeling depression. The finding of the current study disagrees with findings of the studies accomplished by Willard (2006), 2008), Juvonen and Gross (2008), Wang et al. (2009) and Van Der Wilk (2018) who reported that online harassment results in physical aggression, weak academic work, education leaving, and self-murder. It has root to severe causes like educational and family challenges, less self-respect, school offensive treatment and self-murder. According to their report nearly 70% of students in America suffered from online harassment or cyberbullying. The low effects of online harassment according to the experiences of participants in this study is because the majority of participants have not experienced online harassment.

Furthermore, the finding of the current study regarding the coping strategies against online harassment reveals that less than half of the participants agreed to use the following strategies successively to cope online harassment. Talking face to face with the harasser to persuade them to stop harassing, talking with the harasser online or via phone to stop harassing, reporting the online harassment case to the administrator of university, searching Internet for advice regarding online harassment, asking their teachers to include online harassment preventive matters in their teachings’ programs, cleaning the received online messages, ignoring and keeping silence, deleting from their contacts individuals that they do not like to keep contact with them, and sharing the cases of harassment with their friends or family members. Some portions of this outcome is in line with the studies conducted by HM Government (2021), 2011), Cairns (1997), Mellgren et al. (2018), Dhlomo et al. (2012), Fitzgerald et al. (1995), and Fisher et al. (2003) who reported that education, advocacy, social support, and ignoring the online harassment’s cases strategies are helpful ways of coping against online harassment. The authors think that the most effective coping strategies for online harassment are education that raises the awareness of people and social support. Regarding the study participants’ experiences on online harassment by age, year of study and first language, the result of the study demonstrated that there were not any remarkable differences statistically. This finding contradicts with the findings of the studies conducted by Van Der Wilk (2018), Hess (2014), and Lenhart et al. (2016) who reported that majority of the participants who were freshmen with ages above twenty years of old experienced online harassment in a vast extent than other participants of the study.

Concerning the forms of online harassment defined and elaborated in this study, it can be stated that all of them are carried out through use of technology (e.g. Internet, social media and other platforms), but there are some minor differences among them (Noori et al., 2022). Online harassment has a broader scope and meaning that covers other forms of harassment related to use of technology. The purpose of all forms is to harass the targets in different ways. Cyber stalking usually occurs by familiar individuals who use Internet and social media to make somebody else worried or afraid regarding their personal safety. It generally refers to threatening the victims. Cyber stalking is regarded a low- level crime. Cyber harassment often relates to harassing females. Cyberbullying usually targets minors without regarding gender and it is considered a high-level crime. Cat fishing is a form of online harassment that the harasser aims tricking someone else online via fake identity to start a romantic relationship with him or her. Doxxing is a form of online harassment that the harasser aims to post the private information of the victims without their consent. Trolling is a form of online harassment that the harasser purposefully wants to send messages to victims online to deceive them. Online impersonation is a form of online harassment that the harasser uses someone else identity to deceive and get financial benefit from the victims. The focus of this study was chiefly on online harassment, but some other forms of online harassment such as cyber harassment and cyber bullying were used as varieties of online harassment.

6. Conclusion

The aim of the study was to discover the experiences of Afghan female undergraduate students regarding online harassment, its effects and coping strateges. The result of the research indicated that the majority of the partakers have not expereinced any form of online haraw\ssment. However, a few number of participants have experienced adding by someone to social media groups without their consent. Also the outcome of the study is illustrative that a large number of the participants have not experienced negative consequences of online harassment. Besides the study output reveals that more than half of the attendees agreed to use various strategies for coping online harassment.

7. The study implication

The policy makers of education and higher education organizations should use the current study in making policies and strategies to struggle against online harassment in educational institutions. This study can alter the negative perceptions of individuals regarding Afghan female university students’ experience online harassment. Although based on the findings of this study, the level of online harassment among Afghan university undergraduate students is low; the researchers have some implications for the ministry of education, higher education and telecommunication. The ministry of education should include a subject focusing on online harassment negative effects and reprimanding points in their curriculum of schools from grade seven to grade twelve in order to raise awareness of students and prevent them from harassing others. Also the ministry of higher education should include a subject that contains matters regarding negative consequences of online harassment and penalty for the harassers. Moreover, ministry of telecommunication should ratify a rule that if someone harasses another one online, the harasser’s contacts must be banned to all.

8. Limitations of the study

This study is not empty of limitations. This study was conducted in Takhar University which cannot be generalized to all universities across the country. Also this study included participants only from public university. Hence, a future study with more participants and sampling both from public and private universities of the country is needed to be carried out in order to present a general outcome regarding online harassment in Afghanistan educational institutions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Besmillah Daqiq

Besmillah Daqiq is a senior lecturer at Takhar University, Afghanistan. He got his master degree in TESOL from Kabul Education University, Afghanistan. Moreover, he participated in Afghan Junior Faculty Development Program (AJFDP) at Indiana University of United States of America from 5-1-2018 to 20-3-2018. He won one of the small grants of Alumni Fund supported by US Embassy whose goal was to struggle against administrative corruption in Afghanistan. His areas of research are language assessment, language attitudes, curriculum, and teaching methods.

Sayeed Asif Akramy

Sayeed Asif Akramy is a senior lecturer at Takhar University, Takhar, Afghanistan. He has Master’s degree in the field of TESOL. He is also one of the British Council certified English teachers. He was a master trainer from 2017 to 2019 at British Council Afghanistan. His areas of research are language attitudes, language learning and teaching, and inclusive education.

Appendix A

Questionnaire

Investigating Experiences of Afghan Female University Students towards Online Harassment

This study aims to investigate online harassment experiences of Afghan female university students in Afghanistan. It attempts to determine the experiences of female students on common online harassment, effects of online harassment and their coping strategies of online harassment.

Section 1: Participants’ Demographic profile

Please check (√) the most appropriate response

1. Age group□ 15-20□ 21-25□ 26-30

2. First Language□ Dari□ Pashto□ Uzbek

3. Class Level□ Freshman □ Sophomore □ Junior □ Senior

Section 2: Online Harassment Experiences of Afghan Female University Students

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements? They seek your experience and perceptions towards online harassment. Remember that there is no right or wrong answer; just answer as accurately as possible. Please read the statements below carefully and tick the appropriate choices that reflect your experience and perceptions towards online harassment along with the effects and strategies you are coping with. Use the scale below to answer the questionnaire items.

Table

1= Strongly Disagree 2= Disagree 3= Agree 4=Strongly Agree.
Check (√) only one option for each item in the questionnaire.
No	Statement
	Common Online Harassment among Afghan Female university Students	1 SD	2 D	3 A	4 SA
1	Someone else shared my private photos and/or videos online that I did not want them to post.
2	Someone threatened me to sharing my private photos or videos online in case I did not establish love relationship with them.
3	I had a friend (non-romantic) who shared my private message, videos, or images publicly or with other friends.
4	Someone made rude or evil comments about me online.
5	Someone spread an evil rumor about me online.
6	Someone sent me uninvited sexual messages or emails.
7	Someone I know asked me to send them a sexual message, revealing, or naked photo of myself.
8	A stranger asked me online to meet him offline.
9	Someone used my name online with a fake account to threaten, insult, or defraud someone else.
10	Someone sent me love messages online and tried to make relationship with me.
11	I received unpleasant messages from someone even after I told him to stop sending the messages to me.
12	Someone added me to social media groups without my consent that I did not like.
13	I have been called offensive names in a public online space.
14	Someone threatened me to death via online.
Effects of online harassment on Afghan Female university students		1 SD	2 D	3 A	4 SA
15	I lost my confidence in academic activities of university.
16	I lost my hope to future.
17	I felt like leaving my university.
18	I felt like that my reputation was damaged in the community.
19	I felt scared.
20	My relationship with my classmates at university decreased in a high rate.
21	I felt threat to my physical safety.
22	I felt like trying to self-murder.
23	I got the feeling to live out of the sight of public.
24	I lost my confidence to using internet because it is not safe.
25	I felt depressed and anxious.
Online Harassment Strategies Afghan female university students coping with		1 SD	2 D	3 A	4 SA
26	I blocked someone who harassed me online because I did not want to hear from.
27	I asked my instructors to include online harassment preventive points in their teaching programs.
28	I filtered out received online messages.
29	I ignored it and kept silence when I was harassed online because I thought no response would lead the harasser to stop it.
30	I reported to the administrator of university when I got harassed online.
31	I deleted the person from my contacts that I did not like to keep in touch with.
32	I changed my settings so that the person could not contact me anymore.
33	I searched the internet for advice regarding online harassment.
34	I tried talking to the person on the internet or via cellphone to persuade him or her to stop.
35	I tried face-to-face talking about this behavior with the person or somehow persuade him or her to stop.
36	I shared the matter to my friends or family members to help me get rid of it.