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New Technologies, Old Culture 191

found on computer monitors at cafes, university computer labs, and
sometimes at work. These findings are confirmed by an informal
survey which I conducted with the participation of university com-
puter lab administrators at Kuwait University, Internet Cafe owners
and employees, and IT industry professionals, parents, and stu-
dents. These results were confirmed by a colleague who conducted
her own independent survey at six Internet cafes in Kuwait, and
found that only two respondents were using the Internet for “seri-
ous” business. An employee of Cafe Ole Internet cafe, located at the
Layla Gallery, a high-end shopping mall, stated that “The Internet
in Kuwait is about pleasure and down time in a climate where it’s
best to have the comfort of air-conditioning.” 14
Kuwait has the highest recorded temperatures for any inhab-
ited area in the world. The country during the dry, hot summer
months is also subject to frequent sand storms, which make Inter-
net cafes a welcomed respite, especially for younger generations,
both male and female. There are approximately ten Internet cafes
in Kuwait City, including the Lady Di Cafe, established just months
after the death of the Princess. It is customary for Internet cafes to
be divided along gender lines—one side for females and one for
males. These divisions are symbolic of the lines which separate men
and women in Kuwaiti public life: at weddings, in lines at McDon-
alds, at University cafeterias, at government ministry waiting
rooms, at library study lounges. These gender boundaries are po-
liced by the eyes of a curious public and a strong sense of “you never
know who might be watching” (a phrase I heard often throughout
my fieldwork, mostly from women). Gender separation in public life
is maintained by public fears of the cost for transgressing such
boundaries; a cost usually assessed to a woman’s, and thus a fam-
ily’s, reputation. The social sanctions against mixed gender interac-
tions outside of direct relatives are so active that once while I was
in an Internet cafe, the owner got a page on his pager. He called the
number listed on his pager on his cell phone. He discovered that the
page came from a woman inside the cafe. She had called to ask him
to turn down the air conditioning as she was cold. She was sitting
less than 20 feet from the owner, yet she did not feel comfortable
communicating with him face–to–face, in a public place. When I
asked the owner about this curious situation, he responded em-
phatically, “You know, gender issues.”
In addition to being rich, mostly Muslim, conservative, ad-
vanced technologically, Net-active, and hotter than Hades for much
of the year, Kuwait is a country where women face daily challenges