Cyberfeminism in the Arab World

The Internet has become a viable source of newsinformation entertainment and social integration forpeople worldwide. The Internet is also a medium wheregender identity operates strongly. Feminists inparticular hailed the medium as a domain where womencan assert their identities without patriarchalconstraints and can challenge their stereotypicalportrayal in the media. But does the Internet providesuch utopianism? This book provides a contentanalysis of 18 Web sites targeted at Arab women. Theresults demonstrate that the Internet is tarnished bythe same gender stereotypes that have pigeonholedwomen for decades circumscribing them in theirdomestic roles as housewives and mothers andrendering them merely as objects of beauty and visualgaze. The analysis should be especially useful tostudents researchers and professionals in the fieldof gender studies.