Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Saudi Arabia is considered to be one of the absolute Arab Gulf monarchies where political participation, media freedom, and even the public sphere are controlled by the authorities. Earlier literature have highlighted how people, male and female, created the “private” public sphere to overcome the constraints imposed by the state. With the advent of the Arab Spring and popular uprisings in many parts of the Arab world, calls for protests also echoed in Riyadh, Qatif, and Najran; but, a swift police action prevented any “trouble.” However, it could not completely curtail the voices on social media to discuss and voice opinion on various domestic, regional, and international issues, both in favour of the monarchy and against it. Saudi women who face serious hurdles and constant segregation in their private and public lives also found some voice through new social media tools, especially Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and WhatsApp. As the Arab Spring was raging, many Saudi women organised individual or group campaigns demanding the right to drive. Some voiced concerns about domestic violence and other oppressive rules such as guardianship, while others used social media to create awareness among the Saudi women about their rights, health concerns, and other issues of day-to-day needs. This led to the emergence of a “virtual” female public sphere in Saudi Arabia. Through empirical analysis of social media use in Saudi Arabia between 2011 and 2017, this paper underlines that social media can play an important role in creating alternative public spheres and provide means to bring positive change in societies, especially those suffering democratic deficit.