Women and ICT in Africa and the Middle East

Ineke Buskens is a cultural anthropologist working internationally as research methodologist and gender consultant, currently residing in South Africa. Aligning herself with a sustainable, just and loving world, Ineke designs and facilitates research, capacity building and gender awareness processes that foreground self-awareness, intentionality and dialogue. Born in the Netherlands, her degrees are from Leiden University, where she co-designed and co-facilitated the first Women's Studies majors in the country. After having been Head of the Centre for Research Methodology of the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa for five years, Ineke established her consultancy Research for the Future in 1996. Ineke has led several transnational, interdisciplinary and multi-method research projects, of which the GRACE Research Network, involving 28 teams in 18 countries in Africa and the Middle East, has been the latest. She has published on qualitative and emancipatory research methodology, women's health, Gender and ICT4D and Open Development.Anne Webb focuses on the design and coordination of qualitative research and learning processes to address and reduce gender inequality in Canada and internationally. To this end she has been working with communities and research teams for over twenty years, involving people from many walks of life and locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Anne’s approach to feminist qualitative research brings together elements of participatory action research, socio-economic analysis and critical self-awareness. She is currently designing and coordinating a two-year multi-country research and learning process. From 2005 to 2013 she was the research coordinator of GRACE.

• Foreword - Matthew L. SmithIntroduction - Ineke BuskensPart I: Agentic ICT Use: The Aspiration for Emancipation Versus the Power of Gender Traditions1. Healthy Women, Healthy Society: ICT and the Need for Women's Empowerment in Yemen - Ahlam Hibatulla Ali, Huda Ba Saleem, Nada Al-Syed Hassan Ahmed, Nagat Ali Muqbil and Abeer Shaef Abdo Saeed2. Computer Proficiency and Women's Empowerment: Gendered Experiences of ICT at the University of Khartoum - Amel Mustafa Mubarak3. Towards Non-Gendered ICT Education: The Hidden Curriculum at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe - Buhle Mbambo-Thata and Sibonile Moyo4. Equal Opportunities on an Unequal Playing Field: The Potential for Social Shange in the ICT Workplace - Salome Omamo and Edna R. Aluoch5. Can New Practice Change Old Habits? ICT and Female Politicians' Decision-Making in Senegal - Ibou Sané6. Personal Expansion Versus Traditional Gender Stereotypes: Tunisian University Women and ICT - Oum Kalthoum Ben Hassine7. Hiba's Quest for Freedom: ICT and Gender-Based Violence in Yemen - Rokhsana Ismail and Radia Shamsher Wajed AliPart II: Developing Critical Voice in and Through Safe ICT-Created Space8. ICT in a time of Sectarian Violence: Reflections from Kafanchan, Northern Nigeria - Kazanka Comfort and John Dada9. Disconnecting From and in the Public Sphere, Connecting Online: Young Egyptian Women Expand Their Self-Knowing Beyond Cultural and Body-Image Dictates - Mervat Foda and Anne Webb10. Teenage Girls' Sexting in Cape Town, South Africa: A Child-Centred and Feminist Approach - Jocelyn Muller11. Of Browsing and Becoming: Young Yemeni Women Enhance Their Self-Awareness and Leadership Capacities - Zahra Al-Saqqaf12. ICT in the Search for Gender Freedoms: Jordanian University Students Think, Talk and Change - Arwa Oweis13. Scheherazades of Today: Young Palestinian Women Use Technology to Speak Up and Effect Change - Vera Baboun14. Jordanian Bloggers: A Journey of Speaking Back to the Politics of Silence, Shame and Fear - Rula QuawasPart III: ICT- Enhanced Relating and Becoming: Personal and Social Transformation15. Sex, Respect and Freedom From Shame: Zambian Women Create Space for Social Change Through Social Networking - Kiss Brian Abraham16. Ancient Culture and New Technology: ICT and a Future Free from FGM/C for Girls in Sudan - Einas Mahdi Ahmed Mahdi and Ineke Buskens17. Finding New Meaning, Creating New Connections: ICT Empowers Mothers of Children with Special Needs in Egypt - Nagwa Abdel Meguid18. Serving Self and Society: Female Radio Presenters in Uganda Effect Social Change - Susan Bakesha19. Challenging the Silence, Secrecy and Shame: Transforming ICT's Role in Increasing Pre-Marital Sex in Sudan - Ikhlas Ahmed Nour Ibrahim20. Reviving the Power of Community: How Radio Rurale Femme de Mbalmayo in Cameroon Became a Catalyst for Equality and Democracy - Gisele Mankamte Yitamben21. Transforming Relationships and Co-Creating New Realities: Landownership, Gender and ICT in Egypt - Saneya El-NeshawyPart IV: Methodology22. Research Methodology for Personal and Social Transformation: Purpose-Aligned Action Research, Intentional Agency and Dialogue - Ineke BuskensNotes on ContributorsIndex

This remarkable book offers a diversity of rich case studies of women using ICT for empowerment in Africa and the Middle East within contexts which are normally male-dominated in their norms and values. The book is a valuable antidote to both technological utopianism and dystopianism, and should be required reading for those interested in ICT and development, both women and men.