Women and ICT in Africa and the Middle East Changing Selves, Changing Societies

What is the link between Information Communication Technology (ICT) and women's empowerment in today's development context? How can ICT facilitate the pursuit of visions for a better world? Avoiding both 'techno-euphoric' and 'techno-pessimistic' hype this book offers answers.

Based on analysis from twenty-one research teams in fourteen countries, Women and ICTs in Africa and the Middle East explores a multitude of case studies - from the Sudanese radio sex education campaign to the 'Egyptian Facebook Revolution' - demonstrating what it takes to wield the emancipatory potential of ICT.

A much needed, human-centred contribution to the fields of gender, development and Information Communication for Development.

Ineke Buskens currently leads the GRACE (Gender Research into Information Communication Technology for Empowerment) Network involving 21 research teams in 14 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Before she started her company Research for the Future in 1996, she was Head of the Centre for Research Methodology at the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria, South Africa for five years. Together with Anne Webb, she is editor of the book African Women and ICT: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment (Zed 2009).

Anne Webb is the Research Coordinator of GRACE. She has worked with communities and research teams for the past 25 years pursuing the reduction of inequalities. She currently resides in Hull, Québec, Canada.

Foreword; Matthew L. Smith
Introduction: ICT and Social Change: Expanding Selves and Changing Societies; Ineke Buskens
1. Focused Intent and the Objectivity of Love: A Research Methodology for Women's Empowerment in the Information Age; Ineke Buskens
PART I: PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY VERSUS THE TECHNOLOGY OF POWER
2. Healthy Women, Healthy Society: ICT and the Need for Women's Empowerment in Yemen; Ahlam Hibatulla Ali, Huda Omer Basaleem, Nada Asyed Hassan, Nagat Ali Mukbil, Abeer Shaef Abdo
3. Implications for Computer Proficiency and Women's Empowerment: Gendered Experiences of ICT inferiority at the University of Khartoum: Implications for Computer Proficiency and Empowerment; Amel Mustafa Mubarak
4. Towards Computer Science Education Free of Gender Stereotyping: Addressing the Hidden Curriculum at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe; Buhle Mbambo-Thata and Sibonile Moyo
5. Equal Opportunities on an Unequal Playing Field: The Potential for Social Change in the ICT Workplace: Equal Opportunities on an Unequal Playing Field; Salome Awuor Omamo and Edna R. Aluoch
6. ICT and the Ambition of Female Politicians to be Part of Real Decision Making in Senegal: Can New Practice Change Old Habits?; Ibou Sané
7. Tunisian University Women and ICT: Between the Desire for Personal Expansion and the Need to Conform to Traditional Gender Stereotypes; Oum Kalthoum Ben Hassine
PART II: GAINING VOICE AND GROWING SELF IN ICT-ENHANCED SPACE
8. The Use of ICTs in a Time of Sectarian Violence in Kafanchan, Northern Nigeria; Kazanka Comfort and John Dada
9. Young Palestinian Women Use Film, Radio and Social Networking Platforms to Speak Up and Change: Scheherazades Coming into their Own in the Information Era; Vera Baboun
10. Disconnecting from and in the Public Sphere, Connecting On-line: Young Egyptian Women Expand their Self-knowing Beyond Cultural Dictates and their Afflicted Body Image; Mervat Foda and Anne Webb
11. Of Browsing and Becoming: Young Yemeni Women Enhance their Self-awareness and Leadership Capacity Capacities through Gender-informed Internet Use: Of Browsing and Becoming; Zahra Al-Saqqaf
12. ICT in the Search for Gender Freedoms: Jordanian University Students Think, Talk and Change; Arwa Oweis
PART III: SEXUAL AGENCY AND WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT: ICT FOR SELF EXPRESSION AND SOCIETY CRITIQUE
13. 'Let the children speak!' A Critical, Reflexive Study into Teenage Girls' Sexting in Cape Town, South Africa; Jocelyn Muller
14. Sex, Respect and Freedom from Shame: Zambian Women Create Space for Social Change through Social Networking; Kiss Brian Abraham
15. The Cyber Path of Jordanian Bloggerettes: A Journey of Speaking Back to the Politics of Silence, Shame and Fear; Rula Quawas 16. Finding Voice, Seeking Recognition: ICT in the Striving for a Future Free from FMG/C for Girls in Sudan; Einas Mahdi Ahmed and Ineke Buskens
17. ICT and Adolescent Premarital Sex in Sudan: Challenging the Silence, Secrecy and Shame to Protect and Empower Young Women; Ikhlas Nour
PART IV: ICT AND SOCIAL CHANGE: EXPANDING SELVES AND CHANGING SOCIETIES
18. Female Radio Presenters in Uganda and their Powerful Careers: Expanding Selves and Building Communities; Susan Bakesha
19. Radio as Community Forum: How Radio Rurale Femme de Mbalmayo in Cameroon Contributed to Social and Gender Equality and a more Inclusive, Democratic Society; Gisele Yitamben
20. ICT and Gender Based Violence in Yemen: Hiba's Quest for Freedom; Rokhsana M. Ismail and Radia Shamsher Ali
21. ICT and Women Land Owners in Egypt: Talking Charge and Learning to Stand their Ground; Saneya M. EL-Neshawy
22. The Use of ICT by Mothers of Disabled Children in Egypt use ICT to Transform Themselves, their Lives and their Communities: From Outcasts to Change Agents; Nagwa Abdel Meguid