Feminist reflections on internet policies

The articles in this bilingual edition point to how visibility, a complicated phenomenon in itself, is the starting point of a different way of being, and how the stories we tell – entangled in the fine wires of technology – are necessary and essential, and could be the foundations for the movement for change.

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Since the World Summit on Information Society to now there have been several shifts in the field of gender and information society. The dominant discourse during WSIS 2003 and 2005 was infomation communication technology for development (ICT4D) and since then there has been a shift towards a framework centred more around human rights rather than programmatic and fixed ideas of what constitutes development.

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Since the World Summit on Information Society to now there have been several shifts in the field of gender and information society. The dominant discourse during WSIS 2003 and 2005 was infomation communication technology for development (ICT4D) and since then there has been a shift towards a framework centred more around human rights rather than programmatic and fixed ideas of what constitutes development.

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Ghadeer Ahmed created Girl's Revolution on Twitter and Facebook a year after the revolution on Jan 25 2011 in Egypt. In this interview with Yara Sallam she traces the difficult and rewarding journey of talking about women's rights, body, sexuality, violence and harassment and sharing this with many other women and girls online.

Photograph from Girl's Revolution Facebook Page against the ban on wearing skirts in Saudi Arabia

Yara Sallam: How did the idea for the “Girls Revolution” Facebook page come about?

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Neo Musangi is a performing and visual artist, academic and researcher. They are non-binary (preferred pronouns: they and them). In this interview Neo talks about various things - sexuality and gender based groups, the women’s movement and feminism, the role of visual and performing art and their disgruntlement with academia, being non binary openly and publicly both online and offline.

Source: Own work by Neo Musangi. Title: Manpower, installation

I begin my interview with trepidation. In my experience in India, trans, gender non-conforming, non binary and intersex people are wary of knowledge projects, and with good reason. There is a history of epistemic violence here - of being surveyed, written about and made into metaphors around fluidity of gender (and even sexuality) with a bare minimum of participation from those who are gender non conforming, non binary, trans or intersex.

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A powerful discourse around ‘digitally empowered society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ have been added to the neoliberal Indian vocabulary, while access to basic quality education, teachers, schools, infrastructure and so on are still major issues faced by the underprivileged in India. Identities are being formed around new interactive practices, particularly for young Dalit women. This article probes the ways in which caste, gender and ideology/practices of technology are interlinked in India.

Collage of campaign material from Dalit Women Fight, Savari, Documents of Dalit Discrimination and All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch

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A powerful discourse around ‘digitally empowered society’ and ‘knowledge economy’ have been added to the neoliberal Indian vocabulary, while access to basic quality education, teachers, schools, infrastructure and so on are still major issues faced by the underprivileged in India. Identities are being formed around new interactive practices, particularly for young Dalit women. This article probes the ways in which caste, gender and ideology/practices of technology are interlinked in India.

Collage of campaign material from Dalit Women Fight, Savari, Documents of Dalit Discrimination and All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch

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In this article, Serene Lim takes a closer look at how questions of access to the internet relate to the struggles of indigenous people and their movement for rights. Rather than the top-down imposition of connectivity, projects for access should align with their social context and as part of their right to sustainable development and right to equal participation.

There is no opting out. Internet connectivity and information technology are now embodied in our collective shared human condition, cutting across geographical boundaries and different spheres of our lives and identities. As governments move towards e-government, whether you like it or not, you are in a digital system of some kind or other even if you do not have access to the internet.

Feminist talk

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In this article, Serene Lim takes a closer look at how questions of access to the internet relate to the struggles of indigenous people and their movement for rights. Rather than the top-down imposition of connectivity, projects for access should align with their social context and as part of their right to sustainable development and right to equal participation.

There is no opting out. Internet connectivity and information technology are now embodied in our collective shared human condition, cutting across geographical boundaries and different spheres of our lives and identities. As governments move towards e-government, whether you like it or not, you are in a digital system of some kind or other even if you do not have access to the internet.

Feminist talk

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In this interview with Maggie Mapondera, she unpacks movement-building and the role of ICTs. Movements are built around shared stories and passions, and ICTs are one aspect of how momentum is built and sustained around a cause. Here Maggie Mapondera shows how women's stories are powerful and can potentially change the world, but we must listen with care and integrity.

Image of Maggie Mapondera

Maggie Hazvinei Mapondera is a Zimbabwe born hybrid feminist, perching at the intersection of grassroots feminism, feminist communication and movement building.

In this interview, Maggie reflects on the current status of technology and the internet in relation to the feminists movement building and women’s everyday organising and participation globally.

Koliwe Majama: Lets talk about your feminist activist journey. What is your passion and drive?

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In this interview with Maggie Mapondera, she unpacks movement-building and the role of ICTs. Movements are built around shared stories and passions, and ICTs are one aspect of how momentum is built and sustained around a cause. Here Maggie Mapondera shows how women's stories are powerful and can potentially change the world, but we must listen with care and integrity.

Image of Maggie Mapondera

Maggie Hazvinei Mapondera is a Zimbabwe born hybrid feminist, perching at the intersection of grassroots feminism, feminist communication and movement building.

In this interview, Maggie reflects on the current status of technology and the internet in relation to the feminists movement building and women’s everyday organising and participation globally.

Koliwe Majama: Lets talk about your feminist activist journey. What is your passion and drive?

read more

Editatonas - are Wikipedia edit-a-thons that are exclusively for women. The reason for these events is to deal with the stark difference and lack of representation for women on Wikipedia as compared to men. This is also reflected in that only 10% of Wikipedian editors are women. Carmen Alcazar explores what editatonas do to change that.

Photograph of Editatona Mujeres Internacionales en la Biblioteca Vasconcelos, México by Wotancito. Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Translated from here

Feminist talk

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Editatonas - are Wikipedia edit-a-thons that are exclusively for women. The reason for these events is to deal with the stark difference and lack of representation for women on Wikipedia as compared to men. This is also reflected in that only 10% of Wikipedian editors are women. Carmen Alcazar explores what editatonas do to change that.

Photograph of Editatona Mujeres Internacionales en la Biblioteca Vasconcelos, México by Wotancito. Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Feminist talk

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Kerieva Mccormick looks at how young Roma women and girls deal with, understand, and talk about violence and harassment faced by Roma people, online and offline. This article examines the double consciousness experienced by those who live with the reality of exclusion and discrimination even now in contemporary societies, and the ways in which younger generations navigate hostility and celebrate themselves and their resilience.

Mentoring resilience from a Romani feminist perspective.

The work Romani feminists have endeavoured to employ in various sites around the world serves to elicit answers to the question posed by W.E. B. DuBois in The Souls of Black Folk: “How does it feel to be a problem?" (DuBois [1903]1996: 3-4). 1

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Kerieva Mccormick looks at how young Roma women and girls deal with, understand, and talk about violence and harassment faced by Roma people, online and offline. This article examines the double consciousness experienced by those who live with the reality of exclusion and discrimination even now in contemporary societies, and the ways in which younger generations navigate hostility and celebrate themselves and their resilience.

Mentoring resilience from a Romani feminist perspective.

The work Romani feminists have endeavoured to employ in various sites around the world serves to elicit answers to the question posed by W.E. B. DuBois in The Souls of Black Folk: “How does it feel to be a problem?" (DuBois [1903]1996: 3-4). 1

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Ni Una Menos (Not One Woman Less) is a popular feminist uprising originating in Argentina that spread across parts of Latin America, and then across to Poland, Spain and Italy as well. This article traces the origins of this fiery and defiant moment that became a hashtag and a movement, and how it links to technology and social media and to other movements across the world.

Photograph by TitiNicola, under Creative Commons License Attribution Share Alike from Wikimedia Commons.

Feminist talk

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In July 2017, an eclectic and vibrant group got together in Harare, Zimbabwe, including feminists in journalism, visual art, internet rights activism, digital security, movement building, as well as sex and sexuality rights activism. These are their reflections on the feminist principles of the internet and their value in their own context.

Image Source: Photograph by Fungai Machirori

Feminist talk

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On April 24th 2016, more than 70,000 tweets through multiple hashtags coalesced into the largest street protest across multiple cities in Mexico against gender-based violence. In India, Dalit women are foregrounding their realities on the agenda for change, forging political kinship between movements and distances by deftly employing social media and art in their strategies.

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In this last column by Chenai Chair following the gender implications of the research by Research ICT Africa on access, she explores how researchers and activists can proactively explore gender dimensions. Even as ITU figures point to a progressively increasing gender digital divide, there are steps to take to understand and address this divide.

Image Source: Research ICT Africa. Photograph by C Stork. Location: Mozambique surveys

Feminist talk

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What began as a small fundraising drive in July 2017 for Kéfir, a feminist libre tech co-op, has transformed into exploring the importance of feminist infrastructure in Latin America. This is an ongoing conversation between Erika Smith, from Take Back the Tech and APC-WRP with members of the collective Kéfir on infrastructure and the internet, labour in movements, and how to set up new collectives that have to exist within and with economic, social and political hegemonies.

What began as a small fundraising drive in July 2017 or Kéfir, a feminist libre tech co-op, has transformed into exploring the importance of feminist infrastructure in Latin America. Tune into this ongoing conversation we will be nurturing here in the near future.

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