A NORTH Belfast Councillor has expressed her anger after an online meeting about ending gender-based violence was interrupted online.

The public meeting, which was held on Zoom on Tuesday night, was organised by People Before Profit and included Oldpark Councillor Fiona Ferguson.

The meeting also included representatives from Rape Crisis Centre and National Women’s Centre and was attended online by over 100 people.

However, during the meeting, there were several disturbing incidents, including a male who exposed himself, another who played loud music and sexually explicit messages were sent the group chat.

Speaking to the North Belfast News, Councillor Ferguson says the incidents “say a lot” about the level of misogyny in society.

“After Ashling Murphy’s murder, there was uproar across the island. People Before Profit called a meeting about how we end gender violence,” she explained.

“It was not an isolated case. In the North 12 women have been killed by domestic violence since the start of the pandemic.

“We wanted to get women together to talk about how we campaign for an end to this.

“On our Zoom meeting, there were a number of men who couldn’t even cope with the idea of women coming together to talk about this issue.

“One male flashed us and one played loud music and others typed pretty sexually explicit stuff into the chat.

“We had women and admins on hand because we expected this, which really to me is quite telling. It has happened in other Zoom calls on this issue.

“It shows the level of the problem that even when we are coming together to talk about the very worst elements of misogyny when a woman loses her life, there are still men coming in with smaller minor misogynistic actions.

“It says a lot about the level of misogyny in society.”

Councillor Ferguson said such incidents will not stop women from meeting together to talk about issues that face them.

“There are measures you can take to make meetings more private and protected with passwords,” she added.

“It is like asking women not to run in the dark. We should be able to have public meetings about the issues that face us.

“If we use passwords, it affects people coming on who are not that technologically advanced.

“We shouldn’t have to keep protecting ourselves from men who can't stand the thought of women organising against misogyny.”