A new study conducted by the Gulf-based research group YouGovSirak disproves the widely held belief that Arab women throughout the Middle East do not have access to, or interest in, the Internet outside of work. Instead, the study shows that the vast majority of Arab women access the web from home (85%), belongs to a social networking site (71%), and uses the Internet to connect with friends on a daily basis (66%).
The study reflects the evolving attitude towards being online for all sorts of personal reasons. Not only are women online to chat with friends, 45% of Arab women online read articles from newspapers and magazines on the Internet. The study captured the activities of over 1,250 women from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Lebanon held the highest online usage for women with 68% of those surveyed spending more than seven hours a week online outside of work, followed by the UAE at 55%, Kuwait 53%, Egypt 50%, Qatar 47%, Saudi Arabia and Jordan 44%, Bahrain 42%, Syria 34% and Oman 30%.
The study found Facebook to be the leading social networking platform among Arab women, with an estimated 91% of online Lebanese women having a Facebook account, followed by 80% of online women in Egypt, 78% in the UAE, 70% in Jordan, 68% in Kuwait and Qatar, 66% in Bahrain, 64% in Saudi Arabia, 55% in Oman and 45% in Syria. “This was a huge study,” said Lara Al Barazi, Research Manager. Continue Reading »
Vital Voices Global Partnership Team on June 16th 2010 in Middle East & North Africa, News & Current Events