Social media platforms across Africa are being flooded with purple profile pictures, signaling a growing movement against gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide. This campaign, which began in South Africa, has spread to countries like Ghana, Botswana, Kenya, and Nigeria, advocating for justice and systemic change.

• Initiated by Women for Change (WFC), the movement aims to amplify voices ahead of the G20 Women’s Shutdown on Friday, November 21, 2025, in South Africa.
• The Women’s Shutdown encourages participants to wear black, cease work, halt spending, and change their profile pictures to purple; it also calls for a 15-minute symbolic lie-down at noon, representing the 15 women killed daily in South Africa due to GBV.
• The movement is a direct demand for the South African government to declare GBV and femicide a national disaster.