Elsevier

Technology in Society

Volume 33, Issues 1–2, February–May 2011, Pages 119-127
Technology in Society

On line and under veil: Technology-facilitated communication and Saudi female experience within academia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2011.03.005Get rights and content

Abstract

The Saudi female population, which is characterised as sheltered, hard-to-reach and conservative, is arousing good interest globally (and nationally). Therefore, a review of literature on emerging issues surrounding Saudi female experience is timely. This article, in the form of a literature review, provides a background to and justification for a forthcoming study, which will examine how technology-facilitated communication has shaped the social–cultural pattern of Saudi female experience within academia.

Introduction

The Saudi female population, which is characterised as sheltered, hard-to-reach and conservative, has recently aroused good interest globally (and nationally) (see for example [45], and ABC News articles, viz [82], [83], [84], [85]). Therefore, a review of literature on emerging issues surrounding Saudi female experience is timely. This article, in the form of a literature review, presents a background to and justification for a forthcoming study, which will look at how technology-facilitated communication (TFC) has possibly shaped the social–cultural pattern of Saudi female experience. The study was inspired by the apparently inharmonious relationship between ‘communication’ as a public category and ‘the Saudi woman’ as a private category. Any attempt to connect these two categories therefore would surely give rise to distinctive issues worthy of investigation.

The focus of the study will be particularly on the (public) higher education sector. One reason for choosing this sector is that higher education institutions (HEIs) apparently push the cultural boundaries. They are, moreover, as illustrated in Times Higher Education, ‘forces for change,’ in that any changes internal to them are likely to become eventually part of wider society [39]. Moreover, these institutions also produce graduates who are likely to hold positions of power in society.

This article begins by considering the wider social experience of Saudi women and goes on to discuss how the integration of the Internet as a distinctive communication tool into wider Saudi society has influenced this experience. It then discusses the social–cultural pattern of their educational experience and examines how the introduction of TFC into Saudi public higher education has shaped this pattern. The conclusion summarises the issues raised throughout this review and examines their implications.

Section snippets

The introduction of the Internet into Saudi Society

In Saudi Arabia, public access to the Internet was delayed until 1999, by which time an elaborate national system had been established to filter out any inappropriate and unwanted content [30]. This delay reflected concern about the influence of the Internet on the national culture [22]. Saudi literature shows that the introduction of the Internet into the Saudi public domain was a subject of considerable dispute. While for some this innovation was an advanced and valuable communications tool

Female state schooling

Until the late 1940s, Saudi women, being confined to the home, had no access to formal state education [13], [63]. In the 1950s, however, some educated middle-class Saudi men appealed to the Government to allow women to enter formal state education, stressing the importance of female education for the family, child development and marital harmony [28]. This appeal was opposed by conservative elements, who viewed formal education for women as a vehicle of Westernisation [32]. These elements held

Conclusion

This literature review has raised a wide range of issues regarding the changes that TFC has made in the social–cultural pattern of Saudi female experience within academia. These issues can be summarised by the following questions: 1) What issues do these changes give rise to? 2) To whom do these changes matter? 3) What are the different perspectives on these changes? 4) How are these changes experienced in practice ? 5) What are the control mechanisms that the authorities have implemented to

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Chris Davies, Prof Ingrid Lunt and Dr Rebecca Eynon for their comments on the original idea for the paper. He would like to express his gratitude to Dr Andrew Whitworth, Dr Gill Kirkup, Dr Amani Hamdan, Ms Wafa Abutaleb and Mrs Eman Mehana, who commented on a draft of this paper. He also wishes to give special thanks to his colleagues at Oxford, namely Mrs Wan-Ying Tay, Ms Margot McKinnon, Mrs Anna Wells, Ms Jenny Lim, Ms Machi Sato and Mr Chang Da Wan, who

Al Lily did his MA at Manchester and is currently a DPhil candidate at Oxford. He works as a lecturer in ICTs in Education at King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. For more information, visit the following webpage: http://oxford.academia.edu/AbdulAlLily/About

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    Al Lily did his MA at Manchester and is currently a DPhil candidate at Oxford. He works as a lecturer in ICTs in Education at King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. For more information, visit the following webpage: http://oxford.academia.edu/AbdulAlLily/About

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