Cyberfeminism in the Arab Gulf States

This paper intends to connect the dots between the theoretical potentials of cyberspace and the applied practices of cyberfeminism in non-Western context, through tracing the gradual evolution of cyberfeminism as a practice and a discursive activity in the context of the Arab Gulf States. In other words, I aim to capture the current configuration of cyberfeminism as a practice, identify the main of actors who are involved, and offer an alternative version of cyberfeminisms, which is built up on what has termed the responses to what we see as the main problems with contemporary cyberfeminism: its unreflect universalism, its uncritical technophilia, and its relative lack of empirical work. Hence, using data from multiple sources such newspaper articles, social networking platforms, in addition to semi-structured interviews with feminist activists, I seek to examine the role of social networking platforms in initiating feminist movement messages and directing them towards the public sphere. It is worth noting though, that the theoretical outlooks from social movement research will guide the course of the research. Hence I intend to use both structural and cultural approaches developed by academics studying social movements and change (Tarrow 1999; Benford and Snow 2000). Following the lead of gender-conscious social movement research (Ferree and Miller 1985), I seek to synthesize some theoretical approaches using insights from the political process model, discursive opportunity structure, secular and postcolonial feminism, in addition to the ‘networked public sphere’ and it is relationship to the limited scope in addition to the ‘networked public sphere’ and it is relationship to the limited scope of civil society in the Arab Gulf States.