Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 A Brief History of Internet Diffusion and Impact in the Middle East
- 2 IT 4 Regime Change: Networking around the State in Egypt
- 3 No More Red Lines: Networking around the State in Jordan
- 4 Hurry Up and Wait: Oppositional Compliance and Networking around the State in Kuwait
- 5 The Micro-demise of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Working around the State in Comparative Perspective
- 6 Fear the State: Repression and the Risks of Resistance in the Middle East
- Conclusion
- Appendix Internet User Interview Questions
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 A Brief History of Internet Diffusion and Impact in the Middle East
- 2 IT 4 Regime Change: Networking around the State in Egypt
- 3 No More Red Lines: Networking around the State in Jordan
- 4 Hurry Up and Wait: Oppositional Compliance and Networking around the State in Kuwait
- 5 The Micro-demise of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Working around the State in Comparative Perspective
- 6 Fear the State: Repression and the Risks of Resistance in the Middle East
- Conclusion
- Appendix Internet User Interview Questions
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
There's really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard. (Roy 2004)
The Puzzle
My taxi driver just said he hates Mubarak. What am I supposed to say? Is this guy crazy? Does he want to be imprisoned? Is he trying to get me to say something that will get me arrested or thrown out of the country? The location was Cairo; the year was 2004, yet the conversation seems like yesterday. This was the first time I sensed a loss of fear and discursive inhibition among Egyptians – a new communication pattern?
The taxi driver's forthrightness was not an isolated event. Our grocery delivery man, less than a week later, told me he loved Bin Laden. He thought the Arab world needed more leaders like him, willing to stand up to America. Why was this youth publicly celebrating a known terrorist who had killed nearly 3,000 of my fellow citizens? His words were both an affront to me and risky for his own personal safety, given Egypt's repressive public sphere. What explains these increasingly bold speech acts? Did Internet diffusion and use have anything to do with the changing communication environment in Cairo?
Six years later, an interview with two women for this study in Kuwait directly explains the Internet's potential disruptiveness. A twenty-two-yearold Kuwaiti female, who has 1,314 Facebook friends, sends more than 200 text messages a day, and visits blogs on fashion and photography, observes that the Internet
allows for a platform for the Arab street to speak their mind while not having to censor their opinions as much, as well as provides a place to organise events etc…. This provides Arab society with political freedom and exposure to the rest of the world and vice versa. (Interviewed July 2010, Kuwait City)
Similarly, a twenty-four-year-old Kuwaiti female, who has over 600 Facebook friends, sends over 150 text messages a day, and notes that the Internet ‘puts you in touch with any information you need and kills boredom at work’, also explains that Internet use
makes information available more easily and allows for more information to be passed to the general public in a user-friendly way. Blogs open the minds of youths and lessen the gap between men and women and allows [sic] people to make friends through the Internet. (Interviewed June 2010, Kuwait City)
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- Digital Resistance in the Middle EastNew Media Activism in Everyday Life, pp. 1 - 12Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2017