gisw13_chapters

Whose internet is it anyway?Shaping the internet – women’s voices in governancedecision making in the Middle East and North AfricaHanane BoujemiHumanist Institute for Co-operation with DevelopingCountrieswww.hivos.org and www.igmena.orgIt has always been a challenge to explain what Ido for a living to my family and friends, but everyoneagrees I have an interesting career path; theyjust don’t understand what it means exactly, to bemanaging an internet governance programme. Thecredit for my current involvement in internet policyand governance goes to my curiosity; I started usingthe internet around the mid-1990s and it tookme a few years to start asking questions like: “Whomanages the internet?” When I carried out my Master’sthesis research on “freedom of expression onthe internet” ten years ago, I hardly found any referenceson the subject apart from Lessig’s Code (firstedition, 1999), even though it was not directly relatedto the theme of my research.Explaining what internet governance and policymeans in simple terms can be challenging – andbeing a woman working in this field and focusingon the Arab region is complicated – but not impossible.One would expect that, generally, women arenot fairly represented within the policy decisionmaking process in the Arab region due to deeplyrooted perceptions both in the society and theworkplace. It is not a question of how many womenare leading policy battles in the Arab region; itis a matter of there being a will to give women anopportunity to prove they can be effective in decisionmaking. When female representation in thetechnology sector is added to the discussion, anotherlayer of complication is inevitably added tothe question of gender imbalance, which does notapply only to the Arab world but other regions aswell.Challenges facing Arab women in informationand communications technology (ICT) policyThere is a considerable digital gender gap in theArab region. Using ICTs to improve the social standingof Arab women seems to be feasible due tothe unlimited opportunities new technologies canoffer. 1 Yet, without having a clear vision of how toovercome the challenges hindering Arab womenfrom integrating into the field of technology, it willbe impossible to address this issue.Arab women struggle to overcome various obstaclesrelated to the culture and traditions of theregion. The perception of women’s role in societystill revolves around the family unit, even if theyhave a successful career. They are not empoweredto be an equal contributor and are restricted frombeing a driving force to accelerate the social andeconomic development of the Arab region.It is safe to state that Arab women are not yetable to make it into the boardrooms of tech companiesor government entities where high-leveldecisions are made, for the very same reasons. Thestructure of the society dictates that women shouldbe followers but not leaders. This results in low selfesteemand obligates them to abide by the rules ofa society which tends to give more leverage to men.Influential Arab women’s voices in ICT policyInternet governance and policy as a field of expertiseis fairly new. A limited number of women atthe global level have stood out and managed to secureinfluential positions, mainly in the businesssector or civil society organisations. In the Arabregion, the public sector seems to be the mainhost of influential Arab women when it comes tolocal internet governance and policy mechanisms.However, only one woman has managed to reachthe top of the decision-making pyramid: Dr. HassaAl Jaber, the head of the national telecom regulatorICT Qatar, and one of the most powerful womenin the Arab region. Al Jaber has been instrumentalin the liberalisation of Qatar’s telecommunicationmarket and has helped spearhead the modernisationof Qatar’s government through informationtechnology. 21 www.diplointernetgovernance.org/profiles/blogs/the-role-ofinformation-and-communication-technologies-in2 www.arabianbusiness.com/100-most-powerful-arab-women-2012-448295.html?view=profile&itemid=448218#.UiIO7-dkTRd61 / Global Information Society Watch