Empowering Afghan Women: Can ICT Ensure Agency?

ABSTRACT:

In this paper, we review studies on the conceptualization of women’s empowerment, as well as

research on ICT impact on women’s empowerment to suggest that if ICT is going to be an effective

tool in the promotion of empowerment of women, it needs to go past issues related to access,

affordability, availability and awareness.  Exploring findings from a qualitative study in

Afghanistan, we suggest that both for monitoring and for policy development, it is important to look

at how ICT is currently enhancing women’s agency and how ICT can further enhance women’s

agency. Our research analyses new ways to evaluate the role of ICT for sustainable development in

countries like Afghanistan, where women’s ICT practices within a socio-political context that is

unstable, conservative.Moreover, women are experiencing both expansion of opportunities and

entrenched resistances and where women’s empowerment is integral. Moreover, our findings

demonstrate the concept of agency for empowerment within a context in which ICT-related and

gender policies are in the process of being (re-) formulated and market penetration of ICT is

increasing.

KEYWORDS: Accessibility; Citizen; Digital; Inclusion; Indicators; Information; Internet;

Media; Policy; Regional; Regulation; Rights; Services.

1. INTRODUCTION

The importance of women’s empowerment has been reinforced internationally again through the

post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its specific goal #5: “Achieve gender equality

and empower all women and girls.” The importance of Information and Communication

Technology (ICT) in achieving this goal has been recognized in Target 5.b: “Enhance the use of

enabling technology, in particular information and communication technology, to promote the

empowerment of women” (UN Women, 2015). UN Women is developing an agenda on how this

target can be monitored and evaluated suggests the indicator of proportion of individuals who own a

mobile telephone, by sex (UN Women, 2015). This is an admirable push given that we still have

limited disaggregated data by sex, which makes evaluating women’s access to one of the most

important ICT devices difficult (Gurmurthy&Chami, 2014). However, it also highlights a blind spot

in the literature and policy-making practices, where empowerment in relation to ICT is narrowly

defined in terms of ownership. In this paper, we review the literature on the conceptualization of

women’s empowerment, as well as research on ICT impact on women’s empowerment.We explore

the effectiveness ofICT as a tool, beyond it access, affordability, availability and awareness, which

can be used to help women to empower themselves. We conduct our research based on the collected

data from Afghanistan.

2. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH

In this paper we have proposed that if ICT is going to become an effective tool in women’s

empowerment, one that goes past traditional definitions of empowerment, but involves essential

change in women’s status, options, choices and power, project developers, implementers and policy

makers need to look at how ICT enhances women’s active and transformative agency. This

requires:

1) Understanding how women’s access to and use of ICT is gendered and intervening strategically

in “sites” where women are already more present, as well as taking advantage of male presence in

other sites to communicate more gender awareness and gender equality;

2) Interrogating why women are more present in these sites and how these can be changed?

3) Examining to what extent do women utilize ICT to further their own political, economic and

social interests?

4) Evaluating in what ways the content, which targets women and that women access, are about

gender consciousness?

5) Exploring to what extents do the ways women use the devices and their content reinforce gender

roles vs. challenge them? And

6) Identifying to what extent do the ways women use these devices and their content produce

relationships of support and solidarity?

7) Examining and evaluating to what extent men’s ICT practices are facilitating attitudes and

behaviors supportive of gender equality?

The value of focusing on Afghanistan lies in the fact that we are able to look at women’s ICT

practices within a socio-political context that is unstable, conservative and where women are

experiencing both expansion of opportunities and entrenched resistances. Moreover it is a context

in which ICT-related and gender policies are in the process of being (re-) formulated and market

penetration of ICT is increasing. Therefore, the study of Afghan women and their ICT usage gave

us a unique opportunity to explore the promises and challenges of ICT as an empowerment enabler

outside the traditional benchmarking processes.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1 Women’s Empowerment and the Significance of Achieving Agency

Empowerment of women is related to the process by which women’s “options, choice, control and

power” are expanded (Malhotra, Sidney, &Boendar, 2015). Kabeer argues “To be disempowered

means to be denied choice, while empowerment refers to the processes by which those who have

been denied the ability to make choices acquire such an ability” (Kabeer, 2005). In this

conceptualization, empowerment is a process and underscores the importance of gaining agency.

Stromquist argues that agency (or “act on their own behalf (2002: 23)”) as the end-result of

empowerment and choices/resources as the means to achieve agency (Stromquist, 2002). In

particular, she argues that for a given person to be empowered, empowerment needs to occur at four

levels: “the cognitive (critical understanding of one’s reality), the psychological (feeling of self-

esteem), the political (awareness of power inequalities and the ability to organize and mobilize) and

the economic (capacity to generate independent income)”(Stromquist, 2002). In a related manner

and underscoring the centrality of power in empowerment, Papart, Raj and Staudt identify in

Rethinking Empowerment four kinds of power: power over, power within, power with, power to

(Papart, Raj, &Staudt, 2002). Kabeer and Rowlands also underscore that to understand both the

end-goal of empowerment and assess the actions taken to facilitate empowerment, as well as the

processes by which empowerment occurs, we need to look at these four kinds of power and their

implications for women’s empowerment. In this section we look at these four dimensions of power

in relation to empowerment and their implication for ICT as a means for women’s empowerment

(Kabeer, 2008).

3.1.1 Rethinking Empowerment: Power Over

Power over points to the ability of individuals (or groups) to make their interests or goals count,

even in the face of resistance (Weber, 2004). Power over can work through influence and/or control

over institutions, resources or peoples. Empowerment in terms of expanding/increasing a given

group’s/individual’s power over includes creating/modifying legal and normative structures to

providing opportunity and access in terms of ownership of property, holding positions of

authority/influence (political, religious, economic, media), rights regarding paid-employment, and

decision-making processes from the micro-level (individual/household) to the macro-level

(community, nation-state, global) (Kabeer, 1999). In relation to thinking about empowerment and

ICT, expanding women’s power over would include both a) women’s access to and ownership of

ICT devices and b) to what extent women can and do utilize these devices to advance their

economic, political, social, and physical (health, reproductive) interests both at home and outside.

While gaining control over resources, institutions and people are important in understanding and

therefore reducing domination, scholars of power have pointed out that power is not just about

domination.

3.1.2 Rethinking Empowerment: Power Within

Feminist scholars as well as psychologists have thus argued that there is also an internal dimension

in the concept of power—the importance of power within: They point to “understanding

empowerment…as a quality that provides individuals with the feeling that they can control the

direction of their lives” (Pollack, 2008). Here, in addition to the objective control over resources,

the subjective perception of having control is added. In the context of ICT and empowerment, this

would point to the importance of examining how do the kind of information acquired and

communication conducted through the use of ICT impact on women’s self-esteem, self-worth and

self-efficacy?

3.1.3 Rethinking Empowerment: Power With

Another dimension of power relates to power with, draws from Marx’s idea that transformation of

power structures require collective action and in particular revolution, and Arendt’s idea that in

society, power results from the human ability to act in concert to persuade (or coerce) others. In

relation to women’s empowerment, researchers have shown that at the macro-level, the strength of

the women’s movement in the country is a better predictor of more women friendly policies than

the proportion of women in parliament (Beteta, 2006). In relation to ICT and empowerment, this

would point to examining to what extent does women’s access to and use of ICT facilitate feelings

of solidarity, development of (new) support structures, and ability to act collectively to enact change

in their lives and communities. Content and purpose again become important aspects to examine,

going beyond the ownership and access issues.

3.1.4 Rethinking Empowerment: Power To

The final dimension of power is that of power to. Power to has been understood in terms of

“people’s ability to make and act on their own life choices, even in the face of others’ opposition”

(Kabeer, 2005). There is an important distinction here between power over, which is focused on

making others do according to one’s will even in the face of resistance, power to emphasizes the

idea of being able to act on one’s choices even in the face of resistance. Thus, power over

implicates control and domination over others and the removing of agency of others. In relation to

ICT and empowerment, thinking about power to allows us to bring into focus whether the purposes

and the content of women’s ICT practices enhances the ability of women to challenge and transform

their traditional roles and expand their options or merely to fulfill their traditional roles with greater

effectiveness, with limited options.

3.2 ICT and Women Empowerment

ICT has contributed to the socio-economic development and eventually the empowerment of

people, in both global south and north (Mathiason, 2014). ICT options and related services can be

utilized in both ways, as an enabling factor to address a problem or as a solution to a problem itself.

In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), ICT solutions have been used

profusely. According to Tongia, Subramanian, and Arunachalam, while addressing any requirement

of the community using ICT, a project planner or implementer need to analyze at least four

interrelated features. Such analysis helps to determine the value of ICT for the target user (Tongia,

Subrahmanian&Arunachalam, 2005).The features are known as "4As" of ICT4D:

Awareness: The target population and project patrons should have substantial knowledge

about the relevant content, customized purpose, and expected functionalities of the ICT

solutions in focus.

Availability: The ICT solution must be within the easy reach of the related community or

individuals. "Reasonable proximity" needs to be present, along with relevant hardware

and/or software.

Accessibility: This feature talks about the ease of use of the ICT options, at public and/or

private places, using appropriate user interfaces.

Affordability: The cost of access should be within the reach of the target population.

The researchers behind the concept of 4A further believes that the presence of these elements

for ICT4D services can specifically assist the women population to ensure gender equality.

According to them, ICT4D’s responsibilities in women empowerment encompass: enhanced ICT

based training for capacity development; transparent monitoring and information awareness

mechanisms on healthcare, education, and agriculture; and an increased access to health care

including information on aid prevention through locally appropriate content by localization.

3.2.1 ICT and Gender Equality

ICT widened the scope of its applied coverage to traditional economic sectors, on which majority of

the world’s women depends on. Such sectors include agriculture, non-farm livelihoods, education,

artisanship, etc. We have seen the use of ICTs in the forms of information dissemination,

collaborative networking, marketing, human resource development, etc. For example, Kudumbasree

initiative in Kerala, India is a globally renowned women managed entrepreneurship program,

supported by key state governments. In Kudumbasree, it has been a combination of community

mobilization and support from the Kerala Government. One of the key focuses of Kudumbasree

development model is urban poverty alleviation through promoting micro enterprise. Among such

initiatives, ICT based microenterprises have been the primary ones. There, women were trained in

multiple ICT skills to serve and earn from the community they are based in (Rashmi, & Nair, 2014).

3.2.2 The Significance of “Agency” inWomen Empowerment using ICT

Women are significantly underrepresented in many of these previously mentioned sectors, not even

fulfilling the "4A" requirements. In terms of access, a huge gap is present between men and women

ICT users of ICT, specifically mobile telephony. A study, conducted by GSMA in 2015 showed on

average, a woman has 14% less chance than a man to own a mobile phone set. The chance further

decreases for women in South Asia (38% less likely ownership of mobile phone for women in

Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal). The same study mentioned there

are 200 million fewer women mobile phone subscribers in comparison to men globally

(Santosham,Dinechin, Et. Al, 2015).A study by International Telecommunications Union (ITU)

found women from developing countries to be 16% less likely to be online than corresponding men

in the region (International Telecommunication Union, 2013). Also, just having better access does

not necessarily mean it will be positively empowering. According to Nancy Hofkins, sharing same

geo-social realities does not necessarily mean that women and men are parts of same realities.

Women, traditionally, are found to have access to limited resources and rights in comparison with

their male counterparts. Gender-based inequalities have been found to influence women's usage and

participation patterns in ICT based knowledge economies (Hofkins, 2003).

Therefore, this ICT4D analysis framework does not address the need to further analyze any

user's level of empowerment, his or her agency, which can be enhanced or diminished, depending

on the presence or absence of option, choice, control, and power related to ICT applications. The

potentials of ICT are yet to be utilized holistically to ensure comprehensive empowerment for

women. Based on these examples, we argue that when it comes to rolling out and scaling up any

ICT4D project that has the potential to empower the users and make their lives better, one more "A"

(agency) is required. Agency can assist the ICT4D analysts to capture the various nuances of ICT

field applications, and contextualization as well as dynamic customizations of applied projects.

"Agency" will help to better analyze people’s use of ICT enhances their choices, expands their

control over their decisions and lives, empowers them to act on their own interests in the face of

resistance, and increases their options. This will require examining the practices, policy formulation

and implementations at the micro-levels, as well as evaluating how users feels about ICT use and

experience. In doing this, we would be better able to measure the role of ICT in women’s

empowerment.

Overall, we have observed that ICTs utility for women empowerment can only be

maximized if the technological integration becomes a part of the wider socio-economic system,

where ICT service design (content, service delivery, etc.) are customized with the needs of women

in mind so that instead of just reinforcing the status-quo women’s choices and options are

expanded, their ability to act on their choices is enhanced, and they are enabled to further their own

interests as individuals and as a group. We would argue that developing countries which are in the

process of formulating new policies (including the ones of minority and marginalized communities'

empowerment, rolling out of ICT) are an important context in which we should be studying how

current ICT practices are gendered so that research can inform effective interventions, including

policy development. In this study we look at data from one such country—Afghanistan.

3.3 Women’s Empowerment and ICT Policies in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a landlocked country, with a current population of approximately 32million, with

women comprising about 50% of the population. At present, its GDP per capita is US$ 664.76.

Political and social instability have slowed down economy, which recorded only 1.3 percent growth

in 2014, down from 3.7% a year earlier. Nevertheless, industries (2.4%) and services (2.2%) are

growing even with this slow economic progress (World Wide Web Foundation, 2015).Figure 1

Figure 1: Comparison of Annual GDP Growth % (World Bank, 2015)

shows the comparative situation of different key social and economic development benchmarks in

Afghanistan with respect to other South Asian countries (World Bank, 2015).

Even with rapid progress in the ICT sector, Afghanistan is still lagging behind significantly. The

primary mode of communication is mobile telephony with a penetration of approximately 71% with

respect to total population. The individuals connected online is still in single digit (6%) (World

Bank, 2015).There has been no comprehensive study on gender or age specific studies of ICT in

Afghanistan. Figure 2 shows the Mobile Subscriptions per 100 in Afghanistan compared to the three

countries in South Asia and Figure 3 shows the comparative situation of ICT services in

Afghanistan with respect to other South Asian countries (World Wide Web Foundation, 2015). The

Government is looking forward to a plan for 2020 that includes more opportunities for the citizens.

They plan to promote women participation in related courses (such as computer science,

multimedia, communications, and engineering) and develop teacher training and training-of-

trainers courses in ICTs-related subjects in both secondary and tertiary levels in collaboration with

International Universities.

Figure 2: Mobile Subscription Comparisons (World Wide Web Foundation, 2015)

There are several national policies formulated by post-Taliban Afghan governments to address

women empowerment related issues. Among these, the most debated one is Elimination of

Violence Against Women (EVAW) (EVAW,2015). EVAW proposes the legal ban of domestic

violence against women, child and forced marriages, and talks about the facilitation of women

access to healthcare, education, and safe shelter. The other two major policies dealing with women's

working and property rights are the National Labor Policy and National Policy on Women's

Right to Property. The earlier one calls for equal pay for men and women, and equal opportunities

for women in employment and different human resource development programs. The latter,

Figure 3: ICT Infrustructure Comparision 2013 (International Telecommunication Union, 2015)

specifically deals with the civil codes that recognize an Afghan woman's right to own and sell

property (International Telecommunication Union, 2015).

Women's right to have access to education, specifically ICT based education has been

further recognized in the latest draft of the National ICT Policy for Afghanistan (2015-2024).

However, the newly proposed policy does not have any specific section for addressing gender

related issues. It did not have any gender oriented crosscutting theme in the policy document either.

In its "ICT Knowledge, Skills, and Education" section, the Ministry of Communications and ICT

highlighted the need of special attention to providing new learning and ICT access opportunities for

women, alongside youth, disabled, and other disadvantaged population. The government, through

this policy draft, mentioned the challenges women face due to ages old traditions and culture that

prohibits them from using ICT to fullest of potential, for communication, education, professional

skill development, or any other important services. This policy furthermore envisions the presence

of Afghan women in ICT oriented technical and management areas, both in public and private

sectors (UN Women, 2013). In Afghanistan, the cybercafés in big cities and the online social space

accessed through mobile telephone network ensured the Afghan women to connect with each other,

with the outside world, and to create their own space online as well as offline. Online presence gave

them a new sense of identity, a chance to be a part of the global community where not only they can

communicate, but also can sell their own ideas and products.

4. METHODOLOGY

The data in this paper comes from a larger study on the impact of women’s education and

employment on gender relations in the family in South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and

Pakistan. In this larger study, a qualitative approach was used to gather data on educational

experiences, work experiences, gender relations in the home, legal and religious awareness, as well

as the kinds of aspirations women and men had for themselves and their children. Since research on

education, work, and women’s empowerment have highlighted the potentially significant role of

ICT in these processes, as well as the evidence of a gender divide in South Asia related to ICT

access and use the semi-structured interview had one section that focused on questions related to

ICT use in terms of both frequency and purpose, ownership and perceptions (in terms of both how

the respondent is seen by others and how they see themselves when using different ICT devices). In

this paper we present the analysis from respondents in Afghanistan where 97 individuals were

interviewed in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2014 (May –August). While we understand the need of

reaching out to other geographical locations within Afghanistan to have a holistic understanding,

the present political situation and security concerns led us to focus our work among women from

diverse social and ethnic background in and around Kabul.

Respondents were recruited through purposive snowball sampling—a common sampling strategy

utilized in qualitative methodology (Creswell, 2009) in May 2014.Families were identified and

potential participants were approached through a range of ways: phone calls; directly approaching

interviewees in their homes or other places; having family members/other contacts approach

interviewees.The ethnic backgrounds of our respondents are noted in Table 1.

Ethnicity Total Number of Respondents PercentHazara 41 42.27

Tajik 27 27.84

Pashtun 13 13.40

Uzbek 5 5.15

Other 6 6.18

No Answer 6 5.16

Total 97 100

Table 1: Ethnic Background of the Respondents in Afghanistan (Varuni, Et Al., 2015)

Among the 97 individuals interviewed from 32 families, there were 65 women and 33 men.1The

relationships between respondents in each family varied in our sample, allowing us to explore how

being located in different positions in the family may impact on the perspectives and experiences of

individual women (Varuni, Et. Al, 2015). Interviews were conducted in Dari and interviewers

were from Afghanistan, whose families lived in Kabul and most of who were studying at a

university outside Afghanistan. Analytic categories and themes were developed through a mixed-

method approach, where initial themes were derived from the literature and then Dari transcripts

were re-read with these themes in mind and new themes were added and existing themes modified

as needed (Creswell, 2009).

5. INITIAL ANALYSIS

Power over and women’s ICT use

In relation to thinking about empowerment and ICT, expanding women’s power over would include

both a) women’s access to and ownership of ICT devices and b) to what extent women can and do

utilize these devices to advance their economic, political, social, and physical (health, reproductive)

interests both at home and outside. These ideas were reflected during the conversations with the

respondents.

H1P_Zahra (Female)2: No reactions from others. “these mobile/computer are mine. I have not been

seeing anyone telling me to stop using them.”

1There were total 4 pairs of Research Assistants (See Appendix 1). Each pair has completed 10 households approximately. Each Household consisted of 3 interviews, Primary Interviewee (Female), Secondary Interviewee 1 (Another Female member of the house) and Secondary Interviewee 2 (Male Member). 2For the entire research all the respondents were anonymous due to privacy code. The respondents were identified as Household 1 Primary Respondent followed by Researcher’s Name_ (H1P_Zahra), Household 1, Secondary Respondent 1 and Researcher’s name (H1S1_Zahra) and then the third interview was labeled as Household 1, Secondary Respondent 2 and the Researcher’s Name (H1S2_Zahra).

H1PB_Zainab_Mursal (Female): “Using computer by women in learning how to type and use word

and excel might help them to have good chances of better jobs.”

H1S2_Zainab (Male): “"Use of these facilities has negative and positive effects. When [women]

learn computer, they can have income by its help because not everyone knows its programs. For

example, there are few women who completely know computer. This can be good way for their

employment. "

Our field researchers found that even though access, especially of cell-phones tended to be personal

rather than regulated by others, many respondents did hint at the practice of regulation, especially of

women’s use of and purpose of use of ICT devices and content: These were rationalized often in

differing ways, indicating the multiple ways that women’s agency are constrained even when they

are utilizing and accessing ICT devices and content:

Sometimes it is an explicitly gendered form of control. H6S2_Zahra (Male): “However, they (my

friends) have mentioned me that do not let your sisters use Facebook? Why do they have personal

cell phones?" and H2P_Nazifa (female): “"When I see them using it, I mostly tell them to use

mobile only to solve your problems not to call uselessly. Especially to girls in the office."

At other times, we realized that cost is used as a way to regulate women’s agency in the use of ICT:

For example, H5S_Zahsra (male):

“"Using them might have bad impact on economy of a woman who uses these facilities a lot. So,

she should control using these facilities, not too much use of them.”

In Afghanistan, we found the most common qualifications to power over and agency in utilizing

ICT devices and content was framed through moral terms, and often through ideas that youth,

women and the uneducated cannot act responsibly in relation to ICT, and this is where the danger

lies, as well as why social regulation is justified:

H8P_Zahra (Female): "TV’s good programs like news, scientific programs are. But its series are

not." These facilities especially TV "has big impact on less educated people of society. For

instance, youth watching series"

H9S2_Zahra (): “It is good to watch Islamic programs in TV. People will get to know about Islam

more and more through social media and TV.”

During the interview, almost consistently both men and women repeatedly suggested that ICT use

by women is good but…problems of addiction, cost, what type of information should be consumed

and not were important caveats/qualifications provided by respondents. This dynamic actually

points to the wish to regulate women’s agency in the consumption of ICT.

H5S1_Nazifa (female): “Bad thing is that they watch bad dramas and girls learn things which they

should not";

H1PB_Zainab_Mursal (Female): "the channels that their films are not good, if they do not watch it,

it is better. If they watch religious programs, it is better…computer however is a personal thing.

People use it based on their own quest."

H5S_Zahra (): “What should ICT be for: “knowing more about the world but not entertainment…”

H5S_Zahra was against the regulation by mullahs of content (“Well first it was not good then when

they saw these facilities’ facility in life; these people themselves started using them. For instance,

first when TV came to Afghanistan’s markets, it was mullahs who used to choose which channels to

watch and which not to. Now that internet is so popular to be used among people, first they did not

know its facilities, then they saw how useful it is. Besides all, every family had different way of

using internet.")

We found Afghan women often resisting these different attempts to regulate their agency in what

and how they utilize ICT devices and content. For example,

H6P_Zahra:"My father in law has cousins who always say why girls use Facebook. That is why my

daughters make fake profile names in Facebook. They even say why my girls use cell phones. My

response always to them is that my daughters use cell phone because we need to know where they

are and if sometimes they need to inform us about anything happening to them."

In our opinion, this indicates that perceptions remain problematic, but the articulation of such

perceptions, as well as how they are managed can vary depending on the individual and the family.

Power within and women’s ICT use

In the context of ICT and empowerment, this would point to the importance of examining how do

the kind of information acquired and communication conducted through the use of ICT impact on

women’s self-esteem, self-worth and self-efficacy? We believe such situation would also point to

the possibility that depending on both purpose of use and content, ICT can reinforce norms and self-

conceptions that internalize women’s subordinate position or challenge norms and self-conceptions,

leading to critical awareness and questioning of one’s position (Power within).

H2S1_Zahra (Female): "It is good. If they have only access to mobile, then they can use Facebook,

in order to know what happens in the world"

H5P_Zahra (female): Media has both negative and positive impact on people. For instance, for

Afghan illiterate people, if they do not watch TV, how can get to know the news and everything

else? Every TV channel has programs in every national language like Pashtu, Dari, Uzbeki and

English, so people can watch TV and understand everything they want to.

Power with and women’s ICT Use

In relation to ICT and empowerment, this would point to examining to what extent does women’s

access to and use of ICT facilitate feelings of solidarity, development of (new) support structures,

and ability to act collectively to enact change in their lives and communities. Content and purpose

again become important aspects to examine, going beyond the ownership and access issues. (Power

with)

In contrast to the idea that ICT use can create solidarity, we found that the respondents’ reactions

tended to show a concern of harassment, divisions, etc. For example, H6S2_Zahra: "It is good to

use these facilities but it is good to know how and how much. Unfortunately, now a days youth use

Facebook but use it to abuse and take advantage against other ethnic people. It is good to use these

facilities appropriately." (This indicates the ways experiences of users sometimes reinforce or

highlight existing social divisions-in this case ethnicity.) The same respondent points to what they

think about the value of ICT for women’s empowerment and in creating new roles and possibility of

change.

H2PB_Zainab_Mursal (female): "These facilities are so beneficial for women in our society

because women in our society do not have so much interaction with outside. Even if they have jobs,

they are mostly in home or at work. By using these devices, they can increase their information."

Here information and ICT use becomes a way for women to go beyond the isolation they are

subjected to, thus showing the potential of ICT use for expanding power with.

Power to and women’s ICT use

In relation to ICT and empowerment, based on the literature reviews, we believe that thinking about

power to allows us to bring into focus whether the purposes and the content of women’s ICT

practices enhances the ability of women to challenge and transform their traditional roles and

expand their options or merely to fulfill their traditional roles with greater effectiveness, with

limited options. Most respondents highlighted content and use that tended to indicate that ICT use

facilitates women’s traditional roles, thus indicating more of what Kabeer has identified as a passive

form of agency rather than traditional form of agency.

H1P_Zahra (Female): ICT can help with women do their work faster and in shorter period of time.

Thus, it eases their work.

H9S1_Zahra (Female): TV's impact on women." Yes it is. If people can get the positive aspects of

TV of course it is." for example, women can learn cooking through cooking workshops in TV and

try what they have learned."

H9S2_Zahra (Male): “These programs are good for women. they can use TV programs about

cooking and learn cooking for instance”.

H4P_Nazifa (female): “It has positive impact. [women] learn something new, like cooking, they

introduce something new or a doctor gives advice about something to keep them in mind. That is

how it increases our information”.

6. DISCUSSION

In the review of Afghan women’s empowerment we observed that agency was at the heart of

empowerment, where it involves both the ability to further one’s own interest and one’s own behalf,

as well as the resources needed to do so (Stromquist, 2002). We saw that in the ICT framework for

Afghan women’s empowerment the focus has been more on issues related to access. This trend is

somewhat different in comparison with other countries within the same study. For example, in

Bangladesh and India, women's empowerment related to their ICT have been found to be more

related with the multitude of ICT usage issues beyond access. Based on both these reviews, we

pointed to the importance of examining content and purpose of use of ICT.

6.1 ICT as an Enabler in Afghan Women’s life

The experiences of the women in our study speaks to the significance and potential of ICT to

change the lives of women in ways that increase their own understanding of the world, what

resources and opportunities they can access and how others see Afghani women. These are

important in considering how ICT can enhance women’s agency. The strongest evidence of this

comes in women’s statements that ICT increases women’s employment opportunities by both:

creating better employment, as well as providing more information about employment

opportunities.

Women’s experiences also pointed to how ICT applications that facilitate money transfers, business

transactions, as well as easing access to information related to market price enhanced women’s

ability to access economic resources. This is matched by similar experiences of women in East

Africa for example where services such as M-Pesa have allowed women to gain greater decision-

making power and control over managing economic resources in the household (Ndiaye, 2013). As

shown in research on women’s empowerment, employment and economic resources remains an

important pillar of women’s empowerment and thus this is an important site in how ICT can

contribute to women’s empowerment.

Moreover, these women’s experiences spoke about how ICT support increased the quality of

women’s communication skills with the larger social world—thus providing a new way for women

to come out from the homes and/or enter the public sphere. The particular emphasis by our

respondents on how ICT was facilitating the creation of new images and representations of Afghan

woman is significant and links to research on digital storytelling as reported by Gurumurthy and

Chami (Gurumurthy, &Chami, 2014). The fact that many women spoke about how they come to

know more about cooking as an example of how it helps them is a good example of this. In

patriarchal societies, as daughters, mothers and wives, women are expected to cook well for their

family (including for the purpose of providing health food, as well food that can be produced

efficiently/economically). Women utilizing ICT to improve their cooking is an example of a more

passive agency, which makes them, become more effective in their traditional roles rather than

where their options are expanded and where their roles are questioned and challenged.

Even if women are utilizing ICT for health purposes, we should also be asking to what

extent women are utilizing the health information as mothers to improve the health of their family,

or are they also using it to gain more control over their own bodies and improve their own health

including and especially in relation to their own reproductive health. Another more complex

example of this is related to how the restrictions on ICT use by women is challenged by ideas about

security for women, which itself reinforces the idea of the maharam—the watchful and protective

eyes of the male relative is now replaced by the watchful and protective services of the mobile

phone. Still, if women are then able to co-opt the access to the mobile phone made possible by the

need of security, to access other content and for purposes other than their own surveillance,

transformative agency may become possible.

6.2 Agency for Women’s Empowerment

We try to evaluate whether awareness and accessibility (including issues of affordability and

availability) of ICT translate into transformative agency, we have to look at what ICT is being used

for—and in particular whether it reinforces traditional gender roles and norms, or does it challenge

these. Similarly, if we take the example of ICT devices that usually imply shared ownership, such as

the TV, we find that to understand the way access works and what the TV can do, it is important to

understand how use of the TV may be structured by traditional gender norms that privilege male

members in the family. Not only that, it becomes important to also examine what are women

watching on TV and why. In our data, when women have unregulated access to the TV (i.e., when

men are absent), they are still mainly watching serials and entertainment, much of which usually

tends to reinforce traditional gender norms rather than challenge it. Therefore, again, to evaluate

the extent to which empowerment is facilitated by a given ICT, it is important to go beyond access

and also examine how is it being used, and its correlate—why is it being used that way. In the case

of TV for example, why are women generally watching serials more and men watching sports and

news? Sociological research has shown that both gender socialization processes impact significantly

on our media consumption and that most entertainment media tend to reinforce the status quo in

power structures rather than challenge it (Saito, 2007; Emons, Wester, &Scheepers, 2010).

Development of ICT that enable’s women’s agency thus needs to take into consideration these

insights in ways that impacts on women’s consumption of ICT (so as to intervene early in the

socialization process) and research and monitoring need to examine content.

Even with mobile phones, where ownership seems to be more often personalized, if

communications are only facilitating women’s ability to communicate in and develop their

relationships in the family, the potential of ICT to facilitate political empowerment and create

solidarity in producing change remains untapped. A framework that emphasizes agency of women

in the analysis of ICT for women’s empowerment would need to go deeper by interrogating the

structure of these social networks. We need to ask questions such as the following:

Do they affirm women’s self-worth?

Do they critically facilitate gender consciousness, and support women’s ability to change

their lives? or

Do they limit women’s communication to family, regulate their behavior and reinforce

traditional gender roles?

Online purchasing practices could mean that women’s decision-making power in the household is

enhanced and that they experience greater autonomy over their own income and accessing goods

and services that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. At the same time, online purchasing

may re-circumscribe women in the home and prevent them from being able to access physical

spaces that act as spaces of solidarity for women (women-only bazaars e.g.). Which of these

possibilities is at play when and how are important questions to ask in evaluating and developing

ICT in relation to women’s empowerment.

Making agency central thus requires going beyond data of ownership or even type of use—it

requires collecting information on practices, context, relations and meanings. There is ample

evidence that ICT can enable self-expression, the creation of new relationships and communities

and new options for how women can escape violence. However, none of these potentials are

inherent and inevitable to ICT. However, what kind of agency can we speak of when women have

to take on false identities or hide their use of ICT to be safe when utilizing ICT? Or if women

experience violence as a result of their use of ICT? These themes point to how access to ICT will

not ensure the emancipatory potential of ICT in enabling women’s transformative agency.

Monitoring ownership or even monitoring which apps and sites are utilized will not be enough to

evaluate the role of ICT in women’s empowerment.

6.3 Gender Specific Gaps in Policy Making

The Gender-specific policies and initiatives taken by the government were found to be disconnected

and asymmetric in nature, with absence of coordination between different government entities. Also

there are some policies in place, where there is no overt mention of gender and no gender

responsive actions are present as well. The implementation phases of formulated policies remained

inconsistent, causing knowledge gap and bureaucratic complexities for women-led initiatives. For

instance, registering for businesses, ownership, and taxation are some of the other areas where, the

lack of consistent and sufficient government support for women has been documented. For

example, the government policies and facilities available for women to start businesses are often not

communicated properly at the micro-levels. Women entrepreneurs in some places face social and

legal obstacles when it comes to access to: networks (e.g., professional, technical, social, etc.);

information (financial strategy, latest market news, etc.); finance (e.g., loans or investments, tax

exemptions); proper training, and mobility.

In Afghanistan, while the policymakers are publicly very positive about active involvement of

women at national level, the gender-responsive policies and programs are mostly reactive, limited,

and done in ad hoc ways. For example, women entrepreneurs aspiring and the established alike,

have to struggle hard against the male dominated society for going on with their work as the

government policy for equal roles in the society has been vague. Even with official government

support in terms of policy formulation and capacity development initiatives, lack of security results

in low or decreasing investment as well as profitability of their businesses (Dunes, 2013).

6.4 Challenges with ICT Access

ICT solution in general works as an empowering tool for women, irrespective of the users'

education levels. However, in the cases where higher level of ICT integration is required, a

minimum level of education among is not assures. Particularly for women from marginalized areas,

this requirement can be daunting. In addition, the lack of education, especially in science,

technology, mathematics and science, continues to be one of the major challenges that hinder

women from working in ICT businesses. For these reasons, while rolling out ideas and investments

for women using ICT, one needs to also ensure the capabilities, skills, and capacities necessary to

make the best use of ICTs.

Moreover, proper education alone will not be able to ensure proper usage of ICT by women.

Both the public and the private stakeholders need to work together for developing an ICT ecology

where appropriate technologies are used and affordable connectivity is omnipresent. Costly

solutions can only create further information, resources, and digital divide within the communities

where women are trying to make their livelihood as sharing same geo-social realities does not

necessarily mean that women and men are parts of same realities. Women, traditionally, are found

to have access to limited resources and rights in comparison with their male counterparts. This

practice unfortunately transfers to ICT usage too. Gender-based inequalities have been found to

influence women's usage and participation patterns in ICT based knowledge economies (World

Bank and International Finance Corporation, 2015). Therefore, only assuring accessing of ICT

tools is not enough for empowerment, constant monitoring of policies and its implementation will

ensure empowerment in societies like Afghanistan where women are still considered a minority in

the society. The information services and the related contents are required to be appropriate,

relevant and timely, thus helping women to get the best out of the entire ICT system. If the ICT

developers come up with business solutions which are not women-friendly, not culturally

acceptable, accessible, and safe to use, then women entrepreneurs are not going to adopt those

solutions, thus loosing the edge of using ICT in this age of information.

6.5 Agency and ICT as an Enabler

One of the primary enabling criteria to make ICT a success factor for women is human

intermediation. Such intervention promotes trust and accessibility in safe spaces. Role of frontline

workers to help women understand and build trust of new technologies, to overcome stereotypes

about technology and women has been very crucial for the success of any initiative using ICT to

empower women. The human interface is further required when the goal of any organization or

policy is to engage women from socio-economically and geo-politically marginalized communities.

Traditionally, ICT spaces are male dominated and so one needs to ensure that women have access to

women-friendly and safe spaces to access ICTs and related services. Thus, frontline workers are

important in creating these spaces and building these bridges. Moreover, it is imperative to have an

enabling policy and regulatory environment within a country in order to ensure a sustainable growth

of women using ICT. Such conducive and coherent framework needs to covers issues related to

labor laws, business registrations, property and inheritance rights, copyrights, privacy, etc.

7. RECOMMENDATIONS

In this paper we have proposed that if ICT is going to become an effective tool in women’s

empowerment, one that goes beyond traditional definitions of empowerment, but involves

fundamental change in women’s status, options, choices and power, project developers,

implementers and policy makers need to look at how ICT enhances women’s active and

transformative agency. This requires:

1) Understanding how women’s access to and use of ICT is gendered and intervening strategically

in “sites” where women are already more present, as well as taking advantage of male presence in

other sites to communicate more gender awareness and gender equality;

2) Interrogating why women are more present in these sites and how these can be changed;

3) Examining to what extent do women utilize ICT to further their own political, economic and

social interests?

4) Evaluating in what ways the content, which targets women and that women access, are about

gender consciousness?

5) Exploring to what extents do the ways women use the devices and their content reinforce gender

roles vs. challenge them? And

6) Identifying to what extent do the ways women use these devices and their content produce

relationships of support and solidarity?

7) Examining and evaluating to what extent men’s ICT practices are facilitating attitudes and

behaviors supportive of gender equality?

These questions require us to go beyond issues of access, affordability, availability and

awareness—which are all important and necessary, but they are not sufficient. As the comment

from our respondent that even the Taliban are using ICT shows quantitative measures of access and

use do not indicate nor clearly implicate any particular outcome. What makes information

communication technologies political and potentially empowering are the content, the barriers they

strike down (or put up), the meanings that users attach to both content and practice, and the relations

that they (re) produce. Therefore, design, evaluation and regulation issues in ICT need to pay

attention to these elements. This will require us to do more qualitative research into the content,

purpose, meaning and relations of ICT practices—quantitative measures and indicators can then be

developed from these studies, to facilitate more large-scale comparisons. One way to ensure that

ICT development will work to empower women in a holistic sense of empowerment is to put

agency as part of the ICT4D framework. This will help us to better analyze the cross-thematic

effectiveness and measure the impact of ICT as an enabling tool to achieve the newly proposed

Sustainable Development Goals.

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Appendix 1: Name of Research Assistants for Fieldwork in Kabul, Afghanistan

Pair No.

Name of Researchers Name of the Researcher she was paired with

01. MursalJuyaBachelors of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Asian University for Women, Bangladesh.

ZainabHassanpoorBachelors of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Asian University for Women, Bangladesh

02. NargisHazranBachelors of Arts in Asian Studies, Asian University for Women, Bangladesh

Zahra RostamiBachelors of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, Asian University for Women, Bangladesh

03. NazifaAlizadaBachelors of Arts in Politics Philosophy and Economics, Asian University for Women, Bangladesh

AbuzarRoyashBachelors of Arts in International Relations, Tufts University

04. RaziaRezaiBachelors of Arts in Asian Studies, Asian University for Women, Bangladesh

MasudSidigiBachelors in Anthropology and Archeology, Kabul University.