The Lebanese judiciary system never incorporated any kind of texts punishing domestic violence. After years of lobbying, a law against domestic violence drafted by the NGO Kafa was finally going to be proposed for voting in Parliament.

Kafa came to us to help them put pressure on Members of Parliament. Women representing 52% of the voting force, we decided to threaten the MPs with the one weapon that could make a difference: OUR VOTES. We invited people to put a condition on their votes and, consequently, barter a vote for a law that aims to protect them, against a vote for the MPs during the upcoming parliamentary elections.

In Lebanon, when citizens vote at the parliamentary elections, they soak their thumb in blue ink to ensure that they only vote once and do not use someone else’s ID to vote another time. To symbolize our threat, we asked citizens to use their voting thumb, replacing the blue ink with red ink, the colour of the blood of women victims of domestic violence.

We created a simple visual icon featuring a red thumb with a simple statement: “Vote for us. We’ll vote for you”. We asked Kafa activists and TV anchors to colour their thumbs in red and post them online or show their red thumbs on TV. Like wildfire, from a day to another, people from all walks of life, age, and religions joined our movement: celebrities endorsed our cause, media anchors actively supported our movement, brands and institutions joined in.

On D- Day, we wanted to transform our virtual movement into an on the ground protest to further increase the pressure. MPs were meeting inside the parliament. We were outside on the street. The faces of the MPs voting for the law were placated outside of the parliament like a giant outdoor display, and each time an MP was voting against the law, his/her face was covered with the activist’s red thumbs.

The campaign was a huge success as we were able to create phenomenal awareness and engagement in a very short period of time:

• More than 22 million Twitter impressions in the first 2 weeks from 51 countries

• More than 20,000 physical and digital red thumbs gathered

• A 700% increase in online conversations about domestic violence

• A 350% increase in comments on Kafa’s Facebook page

• A 23% increase in followers on Kafa’s Twitter page

• 1.7 million USD in earned media

• 2 million people exposed to the campaign from the TV news coverage only in a country of 4 million

But most importantly, on April 1st 2014, while our red thumbs were waiting outside the parliament, the law passed.