gisw13_chapters

• Conducting social campaigns and activities usingall available media outlets to raise awarenessof women’s rights and contributing tochanging the discriminating culture of the society.• Documenting violations and incidents of violenceagainst women and supporting femalevictims who suffer emotional and physical harm.Musawa is not the only organisation fighting forgender equality in Syria. There are several otherprominent organisations that include the GeneralUnion of Syrian Women 7 (which represents Syriain the relevant UN programmes and agencies), theSyrian Women’s League, 8 and the Association forWomen’s Role Development (AWRD). However,what distinguishes Musawa is its very heavy relianceon the internet and the social web to supportand advance its causes. Musawa has an active website,launched in 2009, that serves as the primarycommunication outlet for the organisation. Thewebsite is rich in content and frequently updated.This is in stark contrast to the other organisationsthat either have non-functioning websites, or havea rather basic web presence.Musawa’s extensive website content includeslocal, regional and international news, reports,studies, a document archive, information on prominentfemale figures and culture, and details ofpublications. Some of the topics covered by theorganisation’s activities include CEDAW, human trafficking,sexual harassment, gender equality, earlymarriage, violence against women, polygamy andwomen’s empowerment. This makes the website oneof the most comprehensive resources on the subjectnot only in Syria, but in the whole Arab region.The gender section of the website includes over65 articles and studies that discuss the topic, includinginformation on gender-responsive budgets,gender and human rights, an introduction to genderevaluation, and an observatory for violations ofgender equality in Syria (such as a story about theCentral Bank of Syria advertising to recruit male employeesonly in early 2011). Interestingly, Musawa’swebsite presents information from a wide spectrumof perspectives, making it one of the few online forumsin the Arab region that expand participationand encourage diversity and difference in opinion.While the Musawa website serves as the primaryresource for gender-related information, reportsand news stories, the organisation seems to haveadopted other ICT and social web tools as its main7 www.wdp-sy.net8 www.syriancp.org/ar/womensomite/sbindex.htmparticipatory platform. This multi-platform approachis an interesting idea that few organisationsin the country have successfully embraced. Musawa’swebsite links to its page on Facebook 9 andTwitter stream. 10 Advocacy and influencing policyare two key activities for the organisation, and theyrequire the widest possible level of participationand engagement from the primary target audience(Syrian women) and the public at large.Musawa’s Facebook page had around 1,500likes as of 15 April 2013. Activity on the page showsseveral posts per day, an indication of an active andparticipatory community. Many posts attract interactionfrom the community in the form of likes,shares or comments. The page also promotesMusawa’s activities in the real world, includingworkshops, events, lectures and festivals. The organisation’saccount on Twitter, on the other hand,has a rather modest following, with only 155 tweetsposted as of 15 April 2013. This could be the resultof the much lower popularity of Twitter in the Arabregion in general, and in Syria in particular, comparedto Facebook. 11Interestingly, Musawa seems to have a second,member-only group on Facebook that focusesmostly on events and dialogue. The group had 156members as of 15 April 2013, and it is not clear whythe decision was made not to make it public.As can be seen from the discussion of Musawa’spresence on the web and social networks,the organisation seems to have actively pursuedleveraging these vehicles to further its causes andfoster a participatory and inclusive community. Thisis actually an appropriate strategy for an organisationthat strives to achieve gender equality andpromote women’s participation. While most otherwomen’s organisations in the country conduct theiractivities entirely offline, and make little if any useof ICTs, Musawa seems to have struck the right balancebetween on-the-ground grassroots activismand online dialogue and advocacy.This strategy has several advantages for Musawa,its membership and their cause. Firstly, it canincrease its reach into communities and amongstindividuals in ways that would not be otherwisepossible. This can expand the organisation’s audienceand strengthen the movement it is tryingto mobilise. Secondly, online communication canfacilitate participation and discussion, leading toricher deliberations around the areas of relevance9 www.facebook.com/MsawatEquality10 twitter.com/musawasy111 The Arab Social Media Report states a total of 3,766,000 users ofTwitter in the Arab region (as of March 2013), compared to almost54,553,000 users of Facebook (www.arabsocialmediareport.com).219 / Global Information Society Watch