1. Authors: Dr. Faheem Hussain Dr. Sara Nuzhat Amin Mashiat Mostafa
Empowering Afghan Women: Can ICT Ensure Agency? CPRSouth2016, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Authors:
Dr. Faheem Hussain
Dr. Sara Nuzhat Amin
Mashiat Mostafa

2. Overview Research Background
Why Afghanistan?- the Background of Afghanistan’s ICT Landscape, Citizens’ Mobilization and Women’s Agency
Key Research Questions
The Significance of This Research: Rethinking Empowerment
Analytical Framework
Key Findings
What’s Next?

3. Background
“Impact of Female Employment and Female Education on Gender Relations in the Family in South Asia”
Ford Foundation Funded Research at Asian University For Women
3 Years of Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Afghanistan (Kabul)
Bangladesh Dhaka And Chittagong)
Pakistan (Karachi & Islamabad)
India (Bihar, Kerala, & Uttarakhand)
3 Principle Investigators
40 Research Assistants (10 Research Assistants/Country)

4. Background Why Afghanistan Socio-Political Context Women’s Rights
Economic Growth
Initiating Policies for SDGS
Women’s Rights
Expansion of Education/Job Opportunities for Women
Entrenched Resistance
ICT Related And Gender Policies
In the Process of Being (Re-) Formulated
Market Penetration of ICT is Increasing.

5. Key Research Questions
Is ICT an Enabler in Afghan Women’s Life?
Can Agency Ensure Effective Empowerment For Afghan Women?
Are the Afghan ICT Policies and Regulations Ready to Engender Afghan Policy Making?

6. Significance of the Research -Rethinking Empowerment
Agency is the end-result of empowerment and choices/resources as the means to achieve agency. Empowerment needs to occur at four levels:
Cognitive (critical understanding of one’s reality)
Psychological (feeling of self-esteem)
Political (awareness of power inequalities and the ability to organize and mobilize) and
Economic (capacity to generate independent income)
(Stromquist, 2002)

7. Significance of the Research -Rethinking Empowerment
The Power Relations: 4 kinds of Power-
Power Over: “the ability of individuals (or groups) to make their interests or goals count, even in the face of resistance.”
Power Within: “understanding empowerment...as a quality that provides individuals with the feeling that they can control the direction of their lives”
Power With: 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
Power To: “people’s ability to make and act on their own life choices, even in the face of others’ opposition”
(Parpat Raj and Staudt)

8. Significance of the Research
Is ICT an Enabler in Afghan Women’s Life?
Do women use ICT to further their own political, economic and social interests?
Is the way women use these devices and their content produce relationships of support and solidarity?
Does women’s use of devices and content reinforce gender roles or women face challenges?
What extent men’s ICT practices are facilitating attitudes and behaviors supportive of gender equality?

9. Significance of the Research
Can Agency Ensure Effective Empowerment for Afghan Women?
Intervening strategically in “sites” where women are already more present to understand why and how these can be changed?
Is male’s presence in other sites an advantage? Can we communicate more gender awareness and gender equality rights to reduce the gender gap?
Evaluating in what ways the content, which targets women and that women access, are about gender consciousness?

10. Significance of the Research
Are the Afghan ICT Policies and Regulations Ready to Engender Afghan Policy Making?
What are the key policies that ensures women empowerment?
What connections/disconnections are there between, MDGs, SDGs, women’s empowerment and ICT policies?

11. Analytical Framework
Expert Elicitation: local NGO’s, government agencies were interviewed
Real Time Data Collection: respondent were recruited through purposive snowball sampling: A common sampling strategy utilized in quantitative methodology.
97 individuals were interviewed in Kabul, Afghanistan
In 2014 (may –august)
32 families there were 65 women and 33 men
Different ethnic groups in Kabul

12. Analytical Framework

13. Analytical Framework Data Collection
Educational experiences, work experiences, gender relations in the home, legal and religious awareness
The kinds of aspirations women and men had for themselves and their children
Research on education, work, and women’s empowerment have highlighted the potentially significant role of ICT in these processes
The evidence of a gender divide in south Asia related to ICT access
**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.

14. Analytical Framework
Analysis of Data: NVivo was used to analyze out the database of records collected through interviews from 30 families in Kabul
NVivo: A Tool for Quantitative Analysis for In-depth Interviews
Coding Query Method
Exploring content test to see connections of different variables with the significance of the research
Matrix Query Method
Cross-tabulation of different variables
Coding Query was used for this particular research to find relation between empowerment and usage of ICT devices by analyzing the Responses of the interviews
Summary of responses with different variables: Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Occupations, Etc.

15. Challenges in Fieldwork
Interviewees did not want any pictures or other forms of evidences to be taken/recorded
Some female respondents did not want their interviews to be recorded
Few female interviewees were monitored by their male partners during interview sessions

16. Key Findings ICT Usage Patterns Social Pressure on Women
Privacy & Security Concerns for Women
Diffusion of ICT
Policy of Engendering ICT usage

17. Is ICT an Enabler in Afghan Women’s Life?
Many Women Are Using ICT Devices for Knowing Their Rights & for Communication
“ICT can help women to better interact with the outside world... these facilities are so beneficial for women in our society because they do not have so much interaction with outside... using computer by women can help them to get better job... (using ICT) Women get new ideas. Sometimes they get to know of their rights...”
Breaking the Stereotypes
“ICT helps others to see the new images of Afghan women in the society”

18. Can Agency Ensure Effective Empowerment For Afghan Women?
Controlling the “Remote Control”: Male members of the family (e.g., the father or grandfather) usually controls who gets to have access to what (ICT devices/services) and at which frequency
“My father in law always scolds me about why I let my daughters have personal cell phones and Facebook accounts... 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.”

19. Can Agency Ensure Effective Empowerment For Afghan Women?
“Protecting” Privacy: Women in many cases access Facebook with fake personal information in order to avoid strife within and outside the family
“Men mostly have full control to use whatever (ICT tools) they want. In family girls are allowed to use them (ICT) but ... they (women) are afraid to become part of the communication network.”
“Democratic” Diffusion of ICT: Ever-growing popularity of ICT (mobile phone, Internet, etc.) even among the majority of the conservatives and anti-establishment elements in Afghanistan
“Swear to God, those things, those people who are part of the Taliban themselves now have dish antennas!”
Can Agency Ensure Effective Empowerment For Afghan Women?
Update the subtitles and reorganize as advised in the previous slide

20. Are the Afghan ICT Policies and Regulations Ready to Engender Afghan Policy Making?
Existing Gender-Specific Policies & Government Initiatives in Afghanistan
Disconnected
Asymmetric in nature
No overt mention of engendering policies and responsive actions
Are inconsistent, causing knowledge gap
Bureaucratic complexities for women-led initiatives
Lack of security and digital property rights causing low involvement
Policymakers Are Integrating New Policies in Afghanistan
Are the gender- responsive policies and programs enough for equal rights?
Are the policies active and transparent about women’s roles?

21. What’s Next Human Intermediation/Interface in Afghanistan
Overcome Stereotypes About Technology and Women
Trust and Accessibility in Safe Spaces
Gender Friendly Work Environment
Socio-economically and Geo-politically Marginalized Communities
Role of Frontline Workers
Help Women Understand and Build Trust of Existing & New Technologies
Country Comparison Across the South Asian Board Through Policy Dialogue
Common Opportunities and Challenges
Individual Issues and Unique Concerns
Role of ICT on Women Empowerment in Fulfilling SDGs
Women Rights on Issues Related to: Labor Laws, Business Registrations, Property & Inheritance Rights, Copyrights, Privacy, Etc.

22. Thank You! Comments/Questions?
Dr. Faheem Hussain
Dr. Sara Nuzhat Amin
Mashiat Mostafa