The internet continues to be a gateway into countries, such as Saudi Arabia, with limited freedom. It is an opportunity for all areas of society to express themselves. The oppressed have once again found their way through virtual forums to revive and disseminate their voices.
The journalist, Sakina Al-Mushaikhas, says: “The virtual world has broken down many psychological barriers to open the door to self-expression. This is why many females have used it as a means of showcasing their skills, discovering themselves and developing their personal capabilities – especially as opportunities in the real world can be limited or not available because they are hesitant and frightened of failure.”
Al-Mushaikhas regards the virtual world as an ideal opportunity for women in Saudi Arabia to discover new horizons and play a role that can be absent for them in the real world, a world which has deprived many of them of their right to develop their intellectual and cultural capacities because interaction with others is necessary in order to broaden one’s intellectual and cultural horizons. This is why Al-Mushaikhas believes that making good use of the virtual world can fulfil the need for human interactions while improving assertiveness and self confidence, with each woman having her own talents and skills that she can offer and develop to benefit both herself and society.
Providing the opportunity to establish pioneering projects online, bringing together the voices of women and allowing them to express their innovation and excellence, is the role of Jahanamiya magazine, an initiative aimed at overturning preconceived ideas promulgated by certain Orientalists about women in the Middle East, and in Saudi Arabia in particular. Working with artists and graphic designers in the region, the magazine, which is issued in English and Arabic, is aimed at rejecting and overturning the oversimplified portrait of Saudi women and their lives in Western media.
It was in the city of Jeddah, before a large gathering of young and mature women at the Al-Bidayah Centre for Natural Breastfeeding and Women’s Awareness, that Saudi scholar Ahd Niazi first announced the launch of her online magazine Jahanamiya, the first cultural and creative magazine written solely by Saudi writers. Niazi, who is studying Creative Writing and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, USA, edits the magazine, which is trying to give people a better understanding of society from the perspective of Saudi women, in addition to showing the diversity of customs and traditions in Saudi society.
The magazine is issued four times a year, to coincide with each of the four seasons, and each issue examines a different topic based around the contributors’ interests; ranging from works of literature, journalism, art, poetry and prose. Each issue also focuses on a matter that is of direct concern to Saudi women. So far two issues of the online magazine have been published.
The most recent edition, published in early 2016, was titled “Your Name,” since Arabic names are almost sacred. According to the magazine’s editor, our names are the first thing we learn about ourselves and about others and are also a central part of our lives and our personalities from which we cannot be separated. In Saudi society, mentioning a woman’s name is sometimes unacceptable and vehemently rejected and therefore the second issue of Jahanamiya wanted to understand women’s relationship with their names more deeply and how these names impact on various aspects of their lives and affect their personalities.
The Jahanamiya team is currently inviting contributors who wish to publish a piece on the subject of gender relations to submit their personal stories about the men in their lives in a special issue of the magazine.
The novelist Salma Al-Moushi no longer sees the internet as a virtual medium; rather she regards it as real and as an outlet, possibly the sole outlet, for Saudi women who do not have many opportunities to showcase their talents and capabilities.
We now have women with their own social media forums and a broad audience and who use their presence in the virtual world to enter the fields of advertising and marketing. As for e-commerce, both younger and older women have used the virtual world to change their lives and create serious investment opportunities, for example on Instagram, to the point that a real-world meeting took place recently which was called the Instagram Female Traders’ Forum. Al-Moushi goes on to say: “Yes, women have used the virtual world to present their ideas and to discuss crucial and societal issues, and so we see the writer, the citizen and the amateur all using the platform to announce what they do through Twitter and many other social networking forums. Given their many capabilities and talents, in this virtual world women have a valuable opportunity to actually be effective through their presence and the opportunities available.”
