This presentation talks about some of the ongoing research in the fields of Women Empowerment using ICT tools. It shares research findings from Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

1. Women Empowerment through ICT4D
Participation, Vulnerability, & Future
Dr. Faheem Hussain
Assistant Professor, Department of Technology and Society,
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences,
SUNY Korea
faheem@sunykorea.ac.kr

2. My Work: Women and ICT
 Department of Technology and Society, SUNY Korea, focuses on
the applications and possible impacts of ICT and other technology
in society, related policy perspectives
 Asian University for Women, my previous working place, is the
first liberal arts university for women in South Asia, where I led the
ICT program for women from 16 different Asian countries
 One of the lead researchers of Ford Foundation sponsored
“Gender Empowerment” research in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India,
and Bangladesh- looking into the ICT usage trends for women and
related social perceptions
 At present, working on Women and Digital Privacy, Social Media

3. Women & ICT4D: Present State
 According to ITU, a global gender gap of 200 million
users, in access to the Internet resulted in by the end of
2013 (IT for Change Annual Report, 2013-14)
 16% fewer women than men access the Internet in
developing countries, compared with only 2% fewer
women than men in the developed world
(IT for Change Annual Report, 2013-14)
 Value of the mobile phone in expanding women's social
linkages
 However, digital divide is not just about connectivity; it is
about access to and control over information flows (IT for Change
Annual Report, 2013-14)

4. Women & ICT4D: Present State
 Empowerment through equitable access
 Inclusiveness within the global and local knowledge
network
 Establishment of “own” space, communication
 Financial and Social Freedom, at home and beyond
 Political Mobilization and Activism

5. Online Platforms for Women in
Afghanistan
 Roya Mahboob (Citadel Software) established an online
platform, based on Film Annex, to encourage and train
Afghan women to develop Web Videos
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-09/afghan-women-seek-internet-s-virtual-
veil-amid-threats.html)
 Afghan Women’s Writing Project, a Facebook based
initiative to encourage and mentor young women
writers (https://www.facebook.com/awwproject/info?tab=page_info)
 Different Ministries (Ministry for Communication and
Technology, Narcotics, etc.) are focused on including
women in their on going and future projects

6. Online Platforms for Women in
Afghanistan
“ICT should be used to get health related, political,
or religious information…. and women do not need
to take permission to use any of it”..
An Afghan Patriarch
“ICT helps me to know my rights, so that I can
speak up the next time I face domestic violence”..
An Afghan Housewife
(Ford Study on Gender Empowerment)

7. Women in #Shahbag Movement
F. Hussain and M. Mostafa, “Digital Bangladesh- A boon or threat to Digital Freedom?”, Communication Policy Research (CPR) South 2014 Conference by LIRNEasia and
Research ICT Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa, September 10-12, 2014.

8. Women & ICT4D: Present State
 Digitally-mediated gender-based violence is on the
rise:
 Mobile phone-based harassment
 Online stalking on social media platforms
 Online pornography network
 Misogyny of online gaming
 Trolling of feminist sites, activists

9. Social Media and Governance:
Absence of Gender Sensitivity
 Government investing in ICT for Development (Escober, 95)
 Governments sponsor new media, with 'big switch'
control (Wu, 2008)
 Peer-production on social media: low capital needs, no
central control, no price signalling (Benklar, 2006)
 Collaboration seems to be governed by power law (Shirky,
2008)
 However, NO gender specific issues on Social Media
related policies (if any) in public spheres
 Many Governments and Stakeholders are NOT ready

10. Study on Online Security/Privacy Perception
among Bangladesh Youths
Perceived Protection of Privacy using Different Communication Options*
Services Very High
(%)
High
(%)
Medium
(%)
Low
(%)
Very Low
(%)
No
Response
(%)
Face-to-Face
Communication
52 19.2 22.2 4.6 1.9 13.3
Mobile 25.6 27.9 33.9 5.66 1.3 5.7
Internet (email) 8 14.3 28.2 15.3 9.6 24.6
Internet (social
7.3 10.3 23.9 13.3 9.3 35.9
networking)
Land Telephone 2.3 7.3 21.6 12.3 18.6 37.8
Letter (paper based) 5.6 6 4 14.3 33.2 36.9
*T-Test for Equality of Means found that the respondents have perceived Mobile to be safer than Internet, but no significantly (with P-Value of 0.449 )
Young Women Users are worse off, without much knowledge on Online Violations
F. Hussain and S. Ullah, “Mobile Communication and Internet in Bangladesh: Is Privacy at Risk for Youth Population?”, Media Watch, Centre for Communication Studies, May, 2013.

11. Study on Online Security/Privacy Perception
among Bangladesh Youths
What is a “Third Party”?
• A large group of users, especially women, admitted not to
have any prior knowledge about the possibilities of their
personal information being shared among individuals or via
service providers
• The numbers are significantly bigger in mobile telephony (46.2 % at
individual level and 51.2 % at the service provider level)
• For many of the concept of “Third Party” was also very new
• They admitted of not thinking about the possibilities of information
being shared without their knowledge before, especially in terms of
social networking sites
F. Hussain and S. Ullah, “Mobile Communication and Internet in Bangladesh: Is Privacy at Risk for Youth Population?”, Media Watch, Centre for Communication Studies, May, 2013.

12. The Future?
• ICT will be omnipresent
– Big Data, Internet of Things, Open Governance
• Ensuring “Access to Information” for women is NOT
ENGOUGH
• In addition to “Net Neutrality”, we want a truly
accessible, ICT enabled environment with “Gender
Neutrality”
• Need to guarantee: “Effective Action on
Information”

13. Scopes for Capacity Building
• (Obvious Ones!) Government Mechanisms and
Private sectors alike need to be evolved and be
involved
– Better flexibility, Transparency
• Inclusive policies and applications, ensuring effective
(not symbolic) women participation and
empowerment
– In public, private, and academic sectors
– Active inclusion of women in ICT Education
• Employment facilitation
– Benchmarking Gender Sensitivity