African Women’s Internet Discourses

Abstract

The chapter highlights the broad and diverse frameworks that underline North African women’s new global interconnectivity. Women’s use of social media such as Facebook, blogging, and Twitter is undermining authority structures that have traditionally circumscribed women’s movements and options in countries such as Egypt and Morocco. The chapter examines the two feminist paradigms of Islamic feminism and secular feminism and looks at how the two movements intersect at the grassroots level in terms of their shared reformist efforts. It specifically looks at how the Internet is changing both feminist movements by allowing for grassroots women activists’ participation via Facebook, Twitter, or blogging, facilitating open critiques of political authoritarian, and creating a platform for change.