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New Technologies, Old Culture 199

Badriya

Badriya is a computer science major at Kuwait University. She is
nineteen and originally from Iran. I interviewed her in the computer
lab at Kuwait University. Badriya is conservative and veils but she,
like Su’ad, has liberal, outspoken ideas. Her narrative emphasizes
the ways in which the Internet is changing women’s status, at least
in cyberspace. Her words also remind us of the contextual hege-
monies that prevent use of the Internet for open and active gender
resistance.

I use the Internet daily. I use it mostly for entertainment pur-
poses, when I get bored, which is often. There’s not much for
young people to do to relax in Kuwait; the Internet fills this
social gap. One of the things I like most about the Internet is
that it allows girls to speak with authority, whereas in real
life, men constantly tell women that men are superior and
that women shouldn’t speak. Still, I don’t think that the In-
ternet will support active struggles for women’s rights. Poli-
tics are dangerous here. People are afraid to speak. If you’re
an important person, or a person with connections within
Kuwaiti society, you can say whatever you want. If you’re a
small person without public importance you cannot; you lack
protection. Most women lack protection. Even some important
people are afraid to speak in Kuwait. People can take what
you say the wrong way and use it against you so most people
just maintain a low profile to protect their reputations.

Badriya’s narrative emphasizes once again the ways in which the In-
ternet has the power to change woman’s voice, by de-emphasizing the
gender of the speaker. In spite of these changes in women’s voice on-
line, such narratives remain contextualized in, for example, a legal
system where, under certain circumstances, a woman’s testimony
only counts for half a man’s testimony. Kuwait is a society where, a
century ago, houses were designed so that women’s voices would not
be heard by visitors. One Kuwaiti historian elaborates by observing
that “it was considered aib [shameful] to let women’s voices be
heard.” Historically, the policy was that “women should not be seen or
even heard by men who were not relatives” (al-Qinanie 1968, 66).
These attitudes towards women’s voices still have an impact upon fe-
male voice today. There are unwritten rules governing when a
woman should speak publicly. Given the stress on marriage as a