Abstract
This chapter offers an unprecedented perspective on the Syrian blogosphere as a communication space used by secular and religious feminists. The analysis is built on real-life examples where the virtual public space is an alternative stage to promote new forms of female visibilities and cross-gender communication interchanges. This innovative analysis will serve as a background for investigations into social media activity in contemporary Syria. The stories narrated by two female bloggers (Maysaloon, and Dania, blogger of My Chaos) are used as primary sources toward understanding social dynamics. Through the creativity, intimacy, and human dimension expressed in these stories, the chapter offers the possibility to trace the motivations that brought these female activists to blog from within an authoritarian regime and a patriarchal society.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abu Fares, abufares said…the World According to a tartoussi. (2008). Secular Shivers and Religious Fever. Accessed December 2008, from https://abufares.wordpress.com/page/5/.
Al-Assad, B. (2000). President Bashar Al-Assad: Inaugural Address. Speech Delivered by Bashar al-Assad on his Inauguration as President of Syria in 2000. Accessed March 2008, from https://al-bab.com/documents-section/president-bashar-al-assad-inaugural-address.
Amir-Ebrahimi, M. (2008). Transgression in Narration: The lives of Iranian Women in Cyberspace. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 4(3), 89–118. muse.jhu.edu/article/245155
Badran, M. (2009). Feminism in Islam: Secular and religious convergences. London: Oneworld. Chicago
Cerruti, M. (2020). 21. Half Syrian Sufi Blogger: Faith and Activism in the Virtual Public Space. In R. Stephan & M. Charrad (Ed.), Women Rising: In and Beyond the Arab Spring (pp. 198–203). New York, USA: New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479846641.003.0022
Dania, My Chaos. (2008a). Religious Fever. http://myfog-dania.blogspot.com/
Dania, My Chaos. (2008b). Homosexuals in Syria, the Ignorant Ignoring of a Right of Existence. http://myfog-dania.blogspot.com/
Dania, My Chaos. (2012). Pre 3 Km. http://myfog-dania.blogspot.com/
Elting, B., Keely, J., & Faris, R., (2009). Map** the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent. In Internet & Democracy Case Study Series. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Accessed January 2010, from https://cyber.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.harvard.edu/files/Map**_the_Arabic_Blogosphere_0.pdf.
Fahmi, S. W. (2009). Bloggers’ Street Movement and the Right to the City. (Re)claiming Cairo’s Real and Virtual “Spaces of Freedom.”. Environment and Urbanization, 21(1), 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247809103006
Göle, N. (2002). Islam in Public: New Visibilities and New Imaginaries. Public Culture, 14(1), 173–190.
Helmi, N. (2011). The Emergence of Open and Organized Pro-Government Cyber Attacks in the Middle East: The Case of the Syrian Electronic Army. OpenNet Initiative. Accessed May 2021, from https://opennet.net/emergence-open-and-organized-pro-government-cyber-attacks-middle-east-case-syrian-electronic-army.
Jurkiewicz, S. (2011). Of Islands and Windows: Publicness in the Lebanese Blogosphere. Oriente Moderno, 91(1), 139–155. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23253711.
Lynch, M., Freelon, D., & Aday, S., (2014). Syria’s Socially Mediated Civil War. In Blogs and Bullet III. United States Institute of Peace. Accessed May 15, 2021, from https://www.alnap.org/system/files/content/resource/files/main/142-pw91-syrias-socially-mediated-civil-war.pdf.
Maysaloon, Commenting on the Arab World: Its History, Culture and Politics. (2007). Deconstructing “Sex,” “Honour” and Patriarchism in the Middle East. Accessed March 2008, from http://www.maysaloon.org.
Maysaloon, Commenting on the Arab World: Its History, Culture and Politics. (2008, December). Who I wrote for and why in English. http://www.maysaloon.org. Accessed October 2008.
Maysaloon, Commenting on the Arab World: Its History, Culture and Politics. (2009). Why I am an Anti-Feminist. Accessed March 2010, from http://www.maysaloon.org.
Maysaloon, Commenting on the Arab World: Its History, Culture and Politics. (2010). A Word on Religious Bigotry. Accessed December 2010, from http://www.maysaloon.org.
Maysaloon, Commenting on the Arab World: Its History, Culture and Politics. (2016a). Baby Steps. Accessed January 2020, from http://www.maysaloon.org.
Maysaloon, Commenting on the Arab World: Its History, Culture and Politics. (2016b). Enjoy the Show. Accessed January 2020, from https://www.maysaloon.org/2016/12/enjoy-show.html.
Maysaloon, Commenting on the Arab World: Its History, Culture and Politics. (2017). Just Want to “Be”. Accessed January 2020, from http://www.maysaloon.org/2017/01/just-want-to-be.html.
Mir-Hosseini, Z. (2002). Debating Women: Gender and the Public Sphere in Post- Revolutionary Iran. In A. Sajoo (Ed.), Civil Society in Comparative Muslim Contexts (pp. 95–122). I.B. Tauris & Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Piela, A. (2011). Muslim Women Online: Faith and Identity in Virtual Space. Routledge.
Plummer, K. (2001). Documents of Life 2: An Invitation to a Critical Humanism. Sage.
Skalli, H. L. (2006). Communicating Gender in the Public Sphere: Women and Information Technologies in the MENA. Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 2(2), 35–59. Accessed March 2008. https://doi.org/10.2979/mew.2006.2.2.35
Sreberny, A., & Khiabany, G. (2010). Blogistan: The Internet and Politics in Iran. I.B. Tauris.
Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. (2009). Accessed March 2011, from http://scmsy.org/?page=category&category_id=23&num_page=2&lang=en.
Taki, M. (2005). Human Rights Watch “False Freedom Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa” (2005). Weblogs, Bloggers and the Blogosphere in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan: An Exploration. Dissertation Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the M.A. Degree in Communications, University of Westminster, London, 2005. Accessed online: https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/11/14/false-freedom/online-censorship-middle-east-and-north-africa#_ftn250
Taki, M. (2011). Why Bloggers Blog in Lebanon and Syria? Methodological Considerations, Oriente Moderno, Nuova serie, Anno 91, Nr. 1, Between Everyday Life And Political Revolution: The Social Web In The Middle East (2011), pp. 91–103, Istituto per l’Oriente C. A. Nallino.
Wadud, A. (1999). Quran and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective. Oxford University Press.
Wadud, A. (2013). Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam. Oneworld Publications.
Zisser, E. (2006). Commanding Syria: Bashar Al-Assad and the First Years in Power (p. 31). I. B. Tauris.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cerruti, M. (2023). Blogging in Pre-war Syria: Female Voices from Within an Authoritarian Regime and Patriarchal Society. In: Skalli, L.H., Eltantawy, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Media and Communication in the Middle East and North Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11980-4_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11980-4_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-11979-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-11980-4
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)