What is the link between information communication technology and women's empowerment in today's development context? How can ICT facilitate the pursuit of a better world?Exploring the rich complexity of the contexts in which they live and work, the authors of Women and ICT in Africa and the Middle East offer a multitude of perspectives and experiences, avoiding simplistic answers and solutions.Based on analyses from twenty-one research teams in fourteen countries, this much-needed, human-centred contribution to the fields of gender, development and information communication technology questions, demonstrates and suggests what it takes to wield the emancipatory potential of ICT.

Foreword - Matthew L. Smith Introduction - Ineke Buskens Part I: Agentic ICT Use: The Aspiration for Emancipation Versus the Power of Gender Traditions 1. Healthy Women, Healthy Society: ICT and the Need for Women's Empowerment in Yemen - Ahlam Hibatulla Ali, Huda Ba Saleem, Nada Al-Syed Hassan Ahmed, Nagat Ali Muqbil and Abeer Shaef Abdo Saeed 2. Computer Proficiency and Women's Empowerment: Gendered Experiences of ICT at the University of Khartoum - Amel Mustafa Mubarak 3. Towards Non-Gendered ICT Education: The Hidden Curriculum at the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe - Buhle Mbambo-Thata and Sibonile Moyo 4. Equal Opportunities on an Unequal Playing Field: The Potential for Social Shange in the ICT Workplace - Salome Omamo and Edna R. Aluoch 5. Can New Practice Change Old Habits? ICT and Female Politicians' Decision-Making in Senegal - Ibou Sané 6. Personal Expansion Versus Traditional Gender Stereotypes: Tunisian University Women and ICT - Oum Kalthoum Ben Hassine 7. Hiba's Quest for Freedom: ICT and Gender-Based Violence in Yemen - Rokhsana Ismail and Radia Shamsher Wajed Ali Part II: Developing Critical Voice in and Through Safe ICT-Created Space 8. ICT in a time of Sectarian Violence: Reflections from Kafanchan, Northern Nigeria - Kazanka Comfort and John Dada 9. Disconnecting From and in the Public Sphere, Connecting Online: Young Egyptian Women Expand Their Self-Knowing Beyond Cultural and Body-Image Dictates - Mervat Foda and Anne Webb 10. Teenage Girls' Sexting in Cape Town, South Africa: A Child-Centred and Feminist Approach - Jocelyn Muller 11. Of Browsing and Becoming: Young Yemeni Women Enhance Their Self-Awareness and Leadership Capacities - Zahra Al-Saqqaf 12. ICT in the Search for Gender Freedoms: Jordanian University Students Think, Talk and Change - Arwa Oweis 13. Scheherazades of Today: Young Palestinian Women Use Technology to Speak Up and Effect Change - Vera Baboun 14. Jordanian Bloggers: A Journey of Speaking Back to the Politics of Silence, Shame and Fear - Rula Quawas Part III: ICT- Enhanced Relating and Becoming: Personal and Social Transformation 15. Sex, Respect and Freedom From Shame: Zambian Women Create Space for Social Change Through Social Networking - Kiss Brian Abraham 16. Ancient Culture and New Technology: ICT and a Future Free from FGM/C for Girls in Sudan - Einas Mahdi Ahmed Mahdi and Ineke Buskens 17. Finding New Meaning, Creating New Connections: ICT Empowers Mothers of Children with Special Needs in Egypt - Nagwa Abdel Meguid 18. Serving Self and Society: Female Radio Presenters in Uganda Effect Social Change - Susan Bakesha 19. Challenging the Silence, Secrecy and Shame: Transforming ICT's Role in Increasing Pre-Marital Sex in Sudan - Ikhlas Ahmed Nour Ibrahim 20. Reviving the Power of Community: How Radio Rurale Femme de Mbalmayo in Cameroon Became a Catalyst for Equality and Democracy - Gisele Mankamte Yitamben 21. Transforming Relationships and Co-Creating New Realities: Landownership, Gender and ICT in Egypt - Saneya El-Neshawy Part IV: Methodology 22. Research Methodology for Personal and Social Transformation: Purpose-Aligned Action Research, Intentional Agency and Dialogue - Ineke Buskens Notes on Contributors Index