The Internet and Youth Subculture in Kuwait

Abstract

Young people in Kuwait constitute both the highest concentration of Internet users (estimated to be approximately 63% of all Internet users in Kuwait)and the largest sector of Kuwaiti society. Moreover, as argued in this article, young people's Internet practices are likely to stimulate the most significant changes in Kuwaiti society. This article scrutinizes a handful of descriptions by young Kuwaiti of the importance and implication of the Internet in their lives.

Introduction

It has been written that those who seek to understand what is happening in the Middle East today and to speculate about the area’s future, would do well to look carefully at youth, for they are the next generation in the process of becoming adults" (Fernea, 1995, p. xiii). With this perspective in mind, several scholars in Kuwait have examined the relationship between youths and the Internet. In 1997, 1998, and 2001, three independent surveys conducted at Kuwait University found that nearly three-quarters of the students surveyed were active Internet users (S. Abbas, 1997; H. Abbas, 2001; Mazid & Ismael, 1998). In Kuwait, 57% of the population is under the age of 25. Young people in Kuwait constitute both the highest concentration of Internet users (estimated to be approximately 63% of all Internet users in Kuwait (H. Abbas 2001)), and the largest sector of Kuwaiti society. Moreover, for reasons explored below, young people’s Internet practices are likely to stimulate the most significant changes in Kuwaiti society over time.

Thus, given their sheer weight as a social force, their innovative communication strategies and Internet savvy, as well as the fact that youth sub-cultures contain the seeds of future social norms, this article scrutinizes a handful of descriptions by young Kuwaitis of the importance and implication of the Internet in their lives. A clear pattern of interpretation emerges from my interviews, that the most magnetic quality of the Internet, which draws Kuwaiti youths to the technology, is the way in which it enables the transgression of gender lines, which are otherwise strictly enforced in Kuwaiti society. This capability is especially important for Kuwaitis who have gone to government schools that are segregated, a majority of the population. Moreover, Internet use by youths is creating new forms of communication across gender lines, interrupting traditional social rituals, and giving young people new autonomy in how they run their lives. At the same time, however, these capabilities remain tempered by pre-existing value systems: most apparently, a sexual double standard concerning what is “decent” for women vs. men online still prevails. Female users are also more likely to condemn the immorality - potential and actual - of the Internet than their male colleagues. In sum, we are seeing important signs of experimentation which cannot help but stimulate processes of change over time as young people redefine norms and values for future generations.

This article is divided into two sections. The first reviews several unpublished studies of the development and impact of the Internet among Kuwait University students, and balances these analyses against my own field research from 1996 through 1998 in Kuwait. The second section examines these findings in light of six in-depth interviews conducted with Kuwaiti students who are active Internet users. Interviews were conducted online during the months of October and November 2001.

Survey Research on Kuwaiti Youths and the Internet, 1996-2001

In March of 1998, the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research co-hosted Kuwait’s Conference on the Information Super-Highway. This was the first professional conference to consider the development and impact of the Internet in Kuwait, and the Islamic World in general, ever held in the Gulf. At the conference, most of the discussions of social impacts of the Internet in Kuwait focused, not surprisingly, upon youth subculture. Drs. Mazeedi and Ismail and I presented papers that independently came to the same conclusions: Kuwaiti youths seem to be the most deeply effected by the transformations in communicative practices enabled by the Internet. Mazeedi and Ismail focused on the ways in which the Internet was detrimental to face-to-face social ties between peers and among family members. They argued that customarily, young (and old) Kuwaiti men had gathered in the late afternoon and evenings to drink tea and eat sweets together. Women had done the same. With the introduction of the Internet, young people argue that they find it more enjoyable to surf the net in the evenings instead of participating in traditional social rituals. A recent regional survey found that 55% of Internet use takes place between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m., the hours when tea and home visits, or visits to the diwaniyya (male social clubs) are most likely to occur (DITnet 1999).

Mazeedi and Ismail also found that young people are unlikely to use the Internet along with other family members (just over 10% did), which means that family ties are potentially jeopardized by Internet use. Instead, youths share their ideas and positive energies in cyberspace with people they don't know personally. While such interactions foster a positive sense of being one with the world (at least according to many students I interviewed), it also opens Kuwaiti youths to contexts in which new thinking, perhaps contrary to one's upbringing, can grow unchecked by traditional authority figures. Only 7.8% of the students surveyed by Mazeedi and Ismail were taught to use the Internet by a family member. Thus the authors conclude that 'families don't set the rules of standards on how to use the Internet ethically and academically' (Mazeedi and Ismail 1998, 4). Moreover, since students often use the Internet to meet with the opposite sex (more than 30% admitted to this as a regular practice) Islamic sanctions against interactions with the opposite sex outside of relatives and marriage are transgressed. In some cases, cyber-dating challenges the role of the family as matchmaker.

My paper corroborated the findings of Mazeedi and Ismail. My fieldwork revealed that the Internet has become an important part of youth sub-culture, especially as a tool for leisure and communicating with the opposite sex. While Mazeedi and Ismail had conducted a formal survey to reach their conclusions, I based my analysis on a smaller pool of in-depth interviews with female students, computer lab administrators and Internet cafe managers/owners, as well as on participant observation. Irrespective of differences in method, both of our analyses generated similar data. Based upon my interviews and observations I argue that most students use the Internet for chatting. Often youths are using the Internet to communicate with members of the opposite sex, sitting in the same Internet cafe or computer lab. Other times they are contacting acquaintances with whom they have shared their nicknames (when meeting in chatrooms) or e-mail addresses. While many of the students I interviewed join international channels, they tend to communicate with people who share a common bond with them, such as being Muslim or Kuwaiti, or having a background in engineering, for example. Many of the women stated that they enjoyed talking with members of the opposite sex because they did not generally have first-hand knowledge of how men think. They explained that they valued gaining a male perspective on many of the problems they faced in daily life, like fights with friends, tensions with parents, or concerns about the ideal spouse. Men were a mystery, outside of their interactions with family members, and the opportunity to interact with strangers of the opposite sex in a safe and anonymous way was irresistible.

Throughout my fieldwork, I met people who had fallen in love, or attempted to, via the Internet. One person I interviewed explained that her brother and sister-in-law had fallen in love via the computer. They met in a chatroom. Over time they developed a regular cyber-relationship. One day, several months into the relationship, they decided to meet in person. When they went to pay for their Internet subscriptions at the Ministry of Communication building, they decided to wait for each other near the entrance. It was love at first sight and they decided ultimately to marry. There were some problems, however, because he was Shi'i and she was Sunni, and her parents refused to bless the engagement. Ultimately love won out, and their wedding cake was shaped like a computer, a symbol of the amazing tool that brought them together, enabling the transgression of sectarian lines which divide Kuwaitis and interrupting the ritual of arranged or semi-arranged marriages.

Internet cafe owners and managers whom I interviewed regularly observed that computers and Internet connections were used mostly for chatting, and often with the opposite sex. The same was true for computer lab administrators at Kuwait University who often expressed disgust that students were not using the Internet as it was intended, to help with student research and academic affairs. On several occasions, I was invited to join female acquaintances as they journeyed to meet potential suitors they had met online. The meeting place was usually somewhere public, and neutral, like an Internet cafe. We would meet outside, and then enter the cafe as a group. We would sit around a table and drink coffee and get to know one another. In a conservative Muslim country, safety resides in numbers. As a foreigner, my presence also acted as a buffer, (perhaps the male at the table was with me.) The women who pursued these visits explained that such liaisons were common.

Mazeedi and Ismail reached the conclusion that such transgressions of gender lines and parental power represented immoral behaviors. In support of this claim, and again revealing the conservative nature of Kuwaiti society, Mazeedi and Ismail's survey revealed that 73.4% of students who use the Internet felt that it was being used in socially abusive and ethically unreliable ways. Similarly, 61.1% of those surveyed felt that "the morals and behavior of the students have been affected negatively by the Internet" (Mazeedi & Ismail, 1998, p. 6). In 2001, a study by Prof. Hassan Abbas at Kuwait University argued that students continue to misuse the Internet. Many of them "sneak into Internet cafes to freely browse through sites linked with immoral activities without check" (Hassan Abbas, quoted in Kuwait Times, 14 October, 2001, p.1). My study argued, on the contrary, that cyber-relations could in fact help young men and women in Kuwait to understand the other gender in a way that might improve communication between the sexes in marriage and the family. Moreover, the Internet might give young people more sovereignty over the choice of a spouse. Often family members choose a spouse for their child based upon standards related to what might improve or protect the social status of the family as a whole. Thus, sometimes the question of love is not a factor, and familiarity is not encouraged. Love, it is said, will grow out of a good marriage. Ironically, or perhaps not, many young people I interviewed felt that parents were the wisest and best agents for determining the suitability of a marital partner. They argued that unlike matches made via the Internet, a family's choice was determined by rational calculations rather than fickle emotions or incomplete information. In any case, it is clear that the guilt students feel at using the Internet to violate Islamic moral standards, as well as the risks they take in transgressing social norms, have not stopped cyber-dating, or visits to sites with pornography from occurring.

While some Kuwaiti students are critical of the ways in which the Internet enables them to violate the norms they are raised to embrace, others are taking full advantage of the Internet as a vehicle for challenging Kuwaiti society's increasingly conservative view of proper public interaction between the sexes.¹ Because the Internet supports practices which interrupt traditional chains of authority at work in their lives, students increasingly find cyberspace an attractive place in which to experiment with unfamiliar or endangered forms of social interaction. To a degree, students' cyber-relations reveal that the Internet supports “decentralization, individual empowerment, resilience and self-sufficiency” (Cukier, 1999, p. 133), practices which coincide with the design principles of the technology. The fact that many Kuwaiti youths remain critical of such practices illustrates how Muslim values help to filter and buffer the meanings and implications of such experiences. Local cultural and social frameworks both shape what is revolutionary about the use of a new tool (trans-gender communicating is not a violation of any norm in the U.S., for example), and in addition, influence the pace of change. The Kuwaiti case suggests, however, that even if Islamic sanctions on behavior exist, some interruption in value structure is likely when new patterns of communication are possible and experimentation persists, even becoming open and organized in temporary fits of passion.

The Internet and Its Impact: Testimony of the Participants

(Note: The names have been changed to protect the identity of the students.) Scholarship on the role of the Internet in Kuwaiti youths’ lives continues to stress that Kuwaiti youths are attracted to the Internet because of the ways in which the technology liberates the user from the conservative social codes of the Gulf. Survey data, however, suggests that identity continues to shape use, in that many of those surveyed feel discouraged from participating in such Internet practices as they threaten the norms and morals of Kuwaiti society. The following section attempts to explore these contradictions and tensions in a series of narratives which situate this analysis of Kuwaiti youths and the Internet within the context of the participants’ own observations. Through these narratives we see reasons for both processes of innovation and change, as well as the persistence of local cultural values and attitudes.

Fahad

Fahad is a Kuwaiti in his early 30’s. He is completing a Ph.D. at the University of Leeds in the school of Computing. I met Fahad at an International conference in Cairo. Fahad and I share research interests in the development and impact of the Internet in Kuwait. I conducted this interview with him via email on the 21th of October, 2001. His testimony offers a perspective on the janus-faced nature of Kuwaiti attitudes towards the Internet:

The Internet is becoming INCREASINGLY day by day more dangerous and fascinating in our life. Do you believe me if I tell you my son Muhammad, comparing to his age- (8) is an expert in the Internet. He can use most if not all the search engines, he has his own Web site on the WWW. He does 90% percent of his school homework by the Internet, and have five or probably six different email addresses, and so on. At University of Leeds, there are around 30 Kuwaiti students, most of them (95%) are very young ageing from 18-22 years old. They are crazy users of Internet. They use the Internet for different purposes, email, chatting, sending messages, browsing the WWW, but mostly remains chatting, with at least 3-4 hours daily (the minimum).

This interview suggests the importance of the Internet in young Kuwaitis’ lives. Fahad claims that Kuwaiti students at Leeds University spend at least 3-4 hours a day on-line, and that a majority of their on-line time is spent chatting. He argues that this is both "dangerous and fascinating," illustrating a bifurcated view towards technology and transformation. The language used to describe his son Muhammad’s cyberpractices suggests fascination at the adeptness of an 8-year-old who is creating content for the Web as well as using it to enhance his intellectual life. More ambiguous are Fahad’s attitudes towards Kuwaiti college students whom he sees spending considerable amounts of time chatting, rather than using the Web for serious research. In Kuwait, many computer lab administrators as well as students I interviewed described the addictive effects of the Internet in young people’s lives. They observed that performance in school was negatively affected by time spent online, chatting rather than studying. The effects of the Internet in young Muhammad’s life, however, suggest that the Internet does not automatically detract from the educational process. In fact, at this time, the Ministry of Education in Kuwait is working to finalize the implementation of a project "on e-interaction" which will integrate computer training in the latest technologies into government schools. (Kuwait Times, 13 October, 2001, p. 1.). The E-Interaction program is part of the Kuwaiti government’s effort to upgrade the quality of public education. It could be that getting beyond the fascination with chatting will come from training to use computers for more cerebral activities, as is the case with Muhammad. At present in Kuwait, much training in the use of computers comes from friends teaching friends how to use the technology. Often the first thing to be taught is how to use IRC (Internet Relay Chat). I was asked numerous times when in the computer labs at Kuwait University if I could help a struggling student (a newby) to get logged on and to participate in a chat session. I was never asked to help anyone with a research problem.

Hassan

Hassan is a 19-year-old Kuwaiti who is finishing a B.A. degree in the United States, at a university in Texas. Hassan is the student of a colleague of mine and he volunteered to participate in an online interview process designed to learn more about the impact of the Internet in young people’s lives in Kuwait. Unlike Fahad, I have never met Hassan in person. While the online interviewing process gives those being interviewed a degree of anonymity and sense of freedom to reveal their thoughts without needing to censor their own opinions, for the interviewer there is no human connection with the subject and it is difficult to contextualize the results in a broader framework of familiarity, how their voice sounds, their capabilities in spoken English or Arabic, how they dress, what they look like, etc…. I deduce from Hassan’s status as a Kuwaiti student abroad, as well as one who attended a private school in Kuwait, the American school at that, that his parents are more than likely liberal in their politics, relatively wealthy (as per his narrative, he attended a private school and has a family beach house for weekend get-aways, typical of the Kuwaiti upper class), and that Hassan is an above-average student, as he was admitted to a well-respected U.S. institution of higher education. I deduce this information from his testimony, not from knowing him personally. His testimony helps to explain why young people in Kuwait are interested in the Internet, as well as provides some preliminary thoughts about the potential impact of the technology both politically and morally. His testimony is unique in that his parents are also Internet users, again suggesting a fairly cosmopolitan and upper class background. (Most 18-20 year olds that I interviewed in Kuwait had parents who did not use the Internet.)

I think the internet provides an "escape" for youth in Kuwait. There isn't much to do in Kuwait other than going out to eat or shop and on weekends the beach house. The internet provides uncensored news, one could argue it gives a different view of news around the world. It is for the most part up to date and current.

I use it for e-mail and to check sports scores and the news, I also shop on the net. For the most part I use it to chat on-line with friends. For me its never been hard to speak across gender lines. I went to an American school from k-12 and I guess I just got used see and talking to girls everyday. But, I've realized that people who go to government schools (segregated schools) find it very hard to talk and socialize with girls. They just haven't had the everyday interaction with girls that my friends and I had. Politically, I think the Internet will help women to get the vote. It also provides a place where free speech can be expressed, since there’s no limits to the Internet and “policing” it is hard.

Morally, the internet does have some wrongs, pornography, which has been banned by a firewall in Kuwait, posed some problems in Kuwait. As for cyber dating and the like I think the internet is a "way out" instead of using the phone or trying to meet somewhere.

For me personally, the internet has made life easier. In school, research meant surfing the web looking for information I needed. Socially it has allowed me to keep in touch with friends from high school. Also, my parents use the internet, so it has helped me to keep in contact with them.

Hassan’s attitudes towards the Internet are cosmopolitan, like his background. For him, gender issues have not been an issue, so he is less drawn to the technology as a means for transgressing social codes. Instead, he uses the Internet, like the average Western college student, for shopping, chatting, research, news and information. There is nothing culturally specific about his testimony, except what he is observing of others in his society. Kuwaiti women, he observes, may use the Internet to advance their struggle for suffrage. Moreover, less well off Kuwaitis who have not been afforded private prep-school educations, and instead have gone to government schools that are gender-segregated, may be attracted to the technology in order to ease conversations with the opposite sex. Hassan’s testimony adds the important layer of class background, which clearly influences how one views and uses the Internet. At one point in the interview, Hassan observes that "The Internet was ‘the place to be’ socially when it was first accessible in Kuwait. Now, since almost everyone has it, people haven’t paid much attention to it. It was like a fad, it came and left."

The introduction of other communications technologies like the television, the cell phone, the PC has mimicked this “hype” then “massification” then “normalization” model. It doesn’t mean that the Internet ‘has come and left’ as the technology has more users today than it did several years ago. In fact, use of the Internet in Kuwait has grown an average of 14 percent a year for the past 4 years. (Wheeler, 2001, p. 198). But the cachet associated with having an e-mail account or chatting seems to be waning for the young of the upper class, who were the first to have access, and subsequently the first to have it become a normal part of their everyday life. Hassan does not say that he does not use the Internet now, but rather, that the mystique behind the technology which drew privileged Kuwaiti youths to the "new toy" is waning. A similar observation was made by a group of Egyptian students at American University in Cairo, who argued that the hyperbole regarding the Internet was a fad, even at the same time that the Internet has become a normal part of their day to day life. Their professor observed, "I thought you guys spent hours on-line chatting?" They replied, "No, sir, that was last year, chatting is boring." (Interview with Prof. Robert Sulayman Bower, December 10th, 2001.).

Hassan’s testimony yields another important set of tensions, that between the fadishness of new technologies, as well as the normalization and integration of new communication tools into everyday life. The transition from fad to norm is linked with expectations of impact as well. Sometimes what turns out to be just a fad, nevertheless in the beginning enables us to imagine sweeping change and a redefinition of the world as we know it. When Al Gore was first promoting the Internet as a global communication and business tool, he promised that the Internet would rapidly transform the world. But such expectations are generally short-lived and impacts from fads tend to be shallow and short-lived as well. Normal parts of everyday life instead conjure images of change which are incremental, evolutionary and silent; nevertheless, it is the normalization of aspects of everyday life which give them the power for sweeping, mass-based and lasting changes which run through all sectors of society like capillaries in the body. What Hassan describes is a world in which the Internet is no longer revolutionary, but instead a normal part of day-to-day life, likely to work deep, slow, but lasting changes throughout Kuwaiti society.

Buthayna

Buthayna is a friend of Hassan’s. She is also a Kuwaiti college student completing a B.A. degree in the United States. She is 20 years old.

[Interviewer]: Why do you think the Internet is so popular among Kuwaiti youth?

[Response]: Well, I have been told that you have lived for a while in Kuwait, so I would gather you are familiar with the way in which the Kuwaiti society is built. There is a somewhat double standard, and there are many gray areas in terms of the two sexes mingling with each other. Therefore I think the most common place for both sexes to mix with each other is through the internet. Girls especially cannot form relationships with boys, even as friends in many families in Kuwait, so the internet is a 'safe' place I guess for them to do so. And the fact that the two sides dont know each other they feel safer to voice their concerns, ideas.. etc. without having their reputations reuined [ruined] or without it affecting their social life.

Already in this interview, we are seeing an interesting difference between the testimony of Hassan and Buthayna. Even though they come from similar class backgrounds, and have similar educational patterns, both having attended private school in Kuwait, Buthayna, being female, re-affirms the general pattern of young people’s Internet use in Kuwait. She is drawn to it because it provides a neutral ground on which females can interact with males without fear of social consequences. A woman’s reputation is something to be carefully guarded, and interacting too freely and openly with the opposite sex is a sure way to blemish one’s social standing as a respectable woman. Men are not subject to the same rules. If they talk with other women, it is the woman who is at risk, not the man. Thus, the Internet for Kuwaiti women is a place in which to overcome this "double standard."

[Interviewer]: Do you think the Internet has any special significance for Kuwaiti women? How do you see the Internet affecting your life as a Kuwaiti woman?
Does gender make a difference?

[Response]: The internet indeed is different for a woman than it is for a man, in many ways. As I have said earlier, due to the society that we live in, women are still bound by so many rules than men are, even if people in Kuwait are not willing to admit it. Therefore, the internet makes it easier to a woman to experience much of what she might not be able to experience in real life, even though this may just be virtual. In terms of research, it is also different, for there are many subjects in our society that are considered taboo, may they be sexual or not, so the internet makes it easier to delve into many worlds sometimes answering questions that cannot be asked, or just opening new horizons.

Buthayna reinforces the differences between female and male Internet use in Kuwait with the observation above. Moreover, she suggests ways in which Internet use can introduce subtle innovations in youth sub-cultural practices, making it easier for women to experience that which they might not be able to access otherwise, both access to the male psyche, as well as access to information and perspectives that she might not otherwise be able to explore.

Sabiha

Sabiha is 19. She is Kuwaiti, and is finishing a B.A. at a university in the United States. She is also a friend of Hassan’s. Her testimony is similar in character to Buthayna’s. She once again stresses that the major impetus behind Internet use among young Kuwaitis is the desire to communicate with members of the opposite sex. Illustrating the conservative nature of Kuwaiti society, Sabiha finds that there is a difference between chatting online (which is relatively harmless) versus having a relationship with someone on line, which she observes "is impossible" as well as inadvisable, for reasons explored below.

[Interviewer]: Why do you think the Internet is so popular among Kuwaiti youth?

[Response]: The main reason internet is so popular with the Kuwaiti youth is because its the most effective way for boys and girls to communicate with each other. Mostly they use the internet to chatt with people from the opposite sex because, to them, it easier to communicate with a name and not a face. very rarely if ever do they use the internet to do any research.

[Interviewer]: Do you think Internet use has a positive or negative affect on Kuwaiti youth? In what way?

[Response]: In some ways there is a positive affect on the youth because they are more able to communicate with guys and its a way for them to know that guys arent soo bad. the bad thing is that some girls try to have relationships with someone online and that isnt possible. many guys think this is possible and wind up having something like 3 or 4 if not more girlfriends online. then there are the girls who try and do the same thing. of course this causes the problem that girls wind up not wanting to trust guys and visa versa. so this is a major problem.

Cyberdating, although it is common, is viewed as “a major problem” by Sabiha. Because there are not face-to-face responsibilities between the parties, and no firm commitment to monogamy, on-line relationships are said to be breaking down the trust between the sexes. Chatting, on the other hand, is viewed by Sabiha as a positive way for girls to understand that guys “aren’t so bad.” This perspective is interesting as it implies a degree of female solidarity as well as a gendered separation common in Islamic societies. Women’s attitudes towards men in the Islamic world are often conveyed in terms one might see applied to foreigners. Men are clearly an “out-group” with strange thoughts, desires and appearance. Only within marriage will these mysteries and sense of foreignness be breeched. Cyberspace is also a breeching ground, and it is possible that providing some data with which to solve the mysteries of the opposite sex will transform young people’s attitudes towards marriage.

Sa’ad

Sa’ad is a college student at a British university. He is Kuwaiti, and is completing an undergraduate degree in information sciences. Sa’ad is a friend of Fahad’s. Sa’ad chose to begin his narrative with a description of the place of the Internet in Kuwaiti society. He observes:

As a start I‚ll give you a brief status of Internet use in Kuwait.

1- Internet is used in Kuwait mainly as an entertainment source (chatting)
2- Internet cafes are widespread through the country and they offer Internet service 24h seven days a week for about 1.5$/hour
3- the age group of people who use Internet ranges between 13-50 but it’s generally between 15-22

When asked about why the Internet is viewed as a useful technology to young people in Kuwait, Sa’ad chooses to respond in terms of his own experiences:

Personally speaking I became interested in internet when i was 15 or 16 i used to spend hours and hours on the pc day and night chatting with people on the net.. it was an easy an effective way to find a cyber friends whom share the same thoughts and ideas..

As u may know that Kuwait is a conservative country, and when coming to relations between genders it‚s a bit like a taboo or something forbidden before marriage. By using the Internet it made it easy to cross the prohibited barrier and to allow communication between the genders freely.

Up to me when I was young i had a problem of expressing my thoughts and feelings because I was shy. On the Internet i could do that so easily without any embarrassment.

Once again, his observations confirm the importance of gender codes and the ways in which cyberspace enables their transgression as a motivating factor for young people’s Internet use in the Gulf. Sa’ad also adds another variable of individual personality, when he confesses that he is a relatively shy person, and he found it enabling to be able to communicate with people with a few degrees of separation.

[Interviewer] When Kuwaiti youths use the Internet, what do they use it for?

In Kuwait we have a saying, which in English means 'every thing forbidden is wanted'. Youth in Kuwait use it for chatting and to other gender freely without any of them know who is behind the screen. as for youths whom their parents are strict and never let them out of house or touch the phone… then they would go on the net and talk while the parents are fooled that their son/daughter is doing the home work on the internet.

One more thing that is forbidden in Kuwait, which is porn and pornography. Youths have always been curious and been eager to know or learn something about sexual relationship. It was never discussed between parents and their children and if it was brought about between youths themselves it was discussed in a wrong way.

Sa’ad’s narrative suggests the possibilities of major social transformations in Kuwait as a result of young people’s Internet uses. Not just because of chatting with the opposite sex, but as well, because of the ability to access information that in the past has been considered taboo or immoral. Young people in Kuwait are like young people everywhere else in the world. They develop an interest in the opposite sex as well as a curiosity about sex with puberty. In the past, these feelings have been off limits in terms of topics of discussion, even with parents. In the Internet age, young people can learn what all the fuss is about. He says of this trend:

I would agree to a certain extent that internet is good for both gender to communicate because it would help in future when both have to deal in university or work. However it wouldn‚t be possible to know who the youths are talking to or what sort of mentality that the person their talking to. Of course none would want his son/daughter to chat with a rapist or drug user.

One important cultural variable at work in the Islamic world is the desire to verify someone’s moral right and authority to offer an opinion or judgment, as well as a desire to assess the soundness of the advice or opinion offered. The soundness of the opinion is often judged in part by the character of the speaker or writer. For Kuwaitis, and other Muslims alike, one of the problems of cyberspace is that it interrupts traditional systems for awarding authority and authenticity to public discourse. This concern, however, has not slowed Muslim uses of cyberspace. Some have even gone as far as to argue that cyberspace has created a form of Muslim renaissance with the creation of on-line fatwa services, i.e., question and answer sites with imams [Muslim clergy] from all walks of life and geographic locations, as well as Muslim community services directors, with offerings as diverse as where to buy halal (Islamically slaughtered) meat, to dating services, to madrassa (religious education) services, and discussion groups. Sa’ad’s comment—that the Internet is both good and bad, because it promotes dialogue across gender lines, as well as discussions of sensitive issues like sex, while at the same time that it does not allow one to know the reliability and character of those with whom one converses—is typical of a pattern of discussions I have had with young people throughout the Muslim world, including, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

When I asked Sa’ad how he expected the Internet to affect Kuwaiti society, explaining that, as illustrated above, some scholars felt that the Internet threatened the social fabric of Kuwait, he responded as follows:

i can remember when i was young.. i barely used to go out with friends i was cut of the outside world and i had my on world on the net. This affected my social live and I‚ve lost contact with my friends. Surely it would have an impact on the political life because the young wouldn‚t be spending time on reading news papers, watching TV or going to dowaniyat (sic) to discuss what's happening recently in the country or world

When I explained that other scholars were concerned that on-line dating could undermine the role of the parents as matchmakers for their children, he responded as follows:

My old flat mate he’s Kuwaiti. He met a Lebanese girl on one of the chatting rooms and he had a relationship with her. They exchanged photos and phone calls after 6 months they met in Lebanon and he met her family and they got engaged. Now they’re happily married for almost 2years.

Now in Kuwait it’s not necessary that parents have to find the perfect match. Their children can go and look themselves and the parents might approve of their decision or not. Some conservative families would not allow this and prefer their children marry who ever they think is suitable.

I certainly don’t want to get married to someone i don’t know and i prefer to chose my match moreover i would want my parents to have an opinion in my match but not to take the final decision.

Marriage is an extremely serious thing and i wouldn’t like to make a decision just while chatting on the net. I wouldn’t mind getting engaged to someone i chatted with but it has to go through the old fashioned way of talking on the phone and face-to-face conversation.

Sa’ad’s observations resonate with the concerns of other Kuwaitis who prefer the traditional ways of courtship, even if the Internet provides the initial contact. Most Kuwaitis I interviewed saw the Internet not so much as replacing the role of the parents in the matchmaking enterprise, but instead, broadening the pool of potential suitors. In commenting on the way dating generally occurs in liberal families, Sa’ad observes:

The usual way of dating in Kuwait starts with exchanging phone numbers between a boy and a girl whom may meet in a restaurant or in malls. Then phone calls. So basically the two exchanged the number just because they liked the way each of them looks like. However when a couple date on the Internet they’ve chatted and they knew the personality of each other. I may consider cyber dating is much better when the persons who are dating are serious and think of having a relationship not just for fun... however its still a risk to believe every thing said on the internet and to trust some one on the internet to go out with.

Sa’ad’s ambivalence continues to express itself in these observations. He feels that just to judge a suitor by looks is not good, and this is the way that courtship generally precedes in Kuwait. On the Internet, cyber-daters get to know the personalities of potential suitors first, and this is something Sa’ad values. The difficulty in verifying the relationship between what one says in cyberspace, versus one’s character, appearance and behavior in real time and place, makes cyber-relationships “risky” in Sa’ad’s opinion. In any case, parents are still envisioned as playing a role in choosing or verifying the choice of a spouse. The ambivalence, the preference for tradition, and the celebration of cyber-capabilities all illustrate a traditional culture’s attempt to adapt new and foreign technologies to the practice of everyday life. Preexisting cultural frameworks act as filters to the kinds of behaviors and capabilities deemed appropriate or useful. The syntheses that result provide a uniquely Kuwaiti response to the digital age.

Alia

Alia is 19. She’s Kuwaiti and is a college student, at present finishing a degree in Nutrition at a U.S. university. She is a friend of Sa’ad’s. Alia’s narrative continues to illustrate the ambiguous feelings which the Internet conjurs up among Kuwaiti youth. She observes:

In my opinion, the internet issue is really difficult to talk about because of the touchy subjects it holds. As in many other countries, the internet is misused in Kuwait a lot. In my opinion, chatting on the internet can be very damaging in the Kuwaiti culture because many people who chat on the internet use it as a tool to meet people of the opposite sex.

Once again we see the expression of conservative Muslim values in terms of a view that the Internet is harmful to Kuwaiti culture as it enables the violation of strict gender segregation which is the norm for Kuwaiti social life. Alia explains that the threat of the Internet comes from the fact that most Kuwaiti youths are interested in the technology because it allows such transgressions. She states, when asked why the Internet is popular among young people in Kuwait:

I think it's because, like I mentioned it's a good way of talking to the opposite sex without getting "caught" by their parents. Most of them just join chat rooms. Hardly any of the young people I know use the Internet for academic purposes or just for the purpose of looking up information. The most used chat program is mIRC. In the past, mIRC wasn't as bad as it is now. People still joined to talk to the opposite sex, but at least there were limits to what you can talk about in a public channel. Now, people talk freely about whatever they want, and some people talk about vulgar and unwanted topics. It's now known that any girl who joins mIRC is not a "decent" girl and is only joining because she's looking for a boyfriend.

Ofcourse, since I'm a girl myself, I completely resent this idea. But just the fact that people think this way made me quit mIRC. And, just to satisfy my curiosity, I joined once and tried to have a conversation with a girl on mIRC, but hardly ANY girl wants to talk to another girl. That really disappointed me, because it proves that they really are joining just to talk to guys. That's another reason why I decided to quit. Another thing is, the age group keeps getting younger and younger. Now even 10 year olds join. there is no parental control over this, which i believe is wrong because these parents are leaving their children in the hands of strangers on the internet, and most of them are very corrupting people!

Alia’s narrative provides an intimate view of the ways in which women’s lives are compartmentalized into behaviors that are safe for one’s reputation and those which are not. She says that she “resents” the double standard applied to females who are discouraged from using new technologies, in this case, the Internet, in order to protect their “decency” while at the same time that such standards are not applied to men. In a demonstration of experimentation and defiance, she tries mIRC anyway, to find out for herself what all the trouble is about. She finds it hard to get other women to chat with her, and concludes that mIRC is “corrupting” since it really is designed to transgress gender boundaries. She voices concern that parents are not carefully enough monitoring their children on-line, as well as concern that the age of participants keeps getting younger and younger. She once again voices distrust for strangers, which fits a common cultural pattern, and as well concludes that most of the conversations in chat rooms at present are “vulgar” and thus inappropriate. She notes that this is devolution of the utility of twhe tool; it didn’t used to be this bad, she observes. Her narrative illustrates an observation made by Sa’ad, that in Kuwait, "whatever is forbidden is desired all the more." The more taboo a topic, the more likely it is to show up in chat rooms. The more Kuwaiti society tries to separate the genders, the more likely the Internet will be used to transgress such boundaries.

When asked about the potential long-term effects of Internet use by young people in Kuwait Alia observes:

most students join chat rooms after their day is over. It does consume their studying time. I admit to wasting a lot of time on the internet when i could have been studying. But as for social issues, i don't think it really gets in the way of those unless the person is REALLY addicted.

About the marriage issue. Well, I might have a different view on this than other people because I consider myself a bit more open than the average Kuwaiti. I've been raised in an English school all my life, and I believe that played a part in giving me different views than Kuwaitis who have been raised in government schools. Also, my parents raised me to believe that I don't have to marry someone through an arranged marriage. If I do happen to want to marry someone, of course my parents have to approve of him, but they don't have to select him for me. In addition, I believe many of the people who chat on the internet are not chatting to look for a marriage partner. They are just looking for something temporary. Especially men, many of them believe that the girls who join the internet are not decent women so how could they marry them? It confuses me because they tend to contradict themselves a lot!! Which is why I like to keep myself away from these things

Alia again expresses frustration at the double standard which characterizes expectations for young women as opposed to young men. She also exhibits the interesting contradictions which characterize the identities of Kuwaitis of the upper class who are raised in line with cosmopolitan values, exposed to new technologies, and yet heavily influenced by the conservative social values of the general context in which they live. She describes herself as open and liberal, and yet she still expects that her parents will have veto power in terms of the spouse she selects. She wants to keep her reputation as a “decent” woman, and yet she also wants to explore new technologies like the Internet. Just because many people use the technology does not mean that she will. And yet, given the general pattern of Internet use in Kuwait, her reputation will not be immune if she is viewed as Internet active, nor will those whom she meets online take her seriously as a potential spouse, since only indecent women are seen as lurking on line.

When asked about whether or not she finds anything morally wrong with the Internet she replies as follows:

In many ways i do believe that it's wrong because they are doing these things behind their parents' backs and they know it's wrong but they do it anyway. They also cyberdate "undercover" so nobody knows who they are and that way their reputations won't get hurt by it. I believe this is extremely wrong and immoral. Plus, how could you fall in love with someone you have never seen or met personally? How do you know they're not complete liars??

It's very easy to lie on the internet and many people choose to ignore that fact.

Again, we see the preference for face-to-face conversation with people one knows, as it is possible to lie in cyberspace and there is no system of verification and authorization available. We also see an expression of local cultural values which says that parents know best, and that anything done behind their backs is more than likely immoral and unacceptable. In spite of these judgments, Alia values the place of the Internet in her life. When asked about how the technology has influenced her life personally, she observes:

The internet changed my life a lot. I'm sorry to say that it was the thing that taught me all the bad things that people shouldn't do. I am lucky that my parents taught me better than to believe everything I see or hear from people, because if it weren't for that I would be just like all those other girls who join the internet to meet guys. It also wasted a lot of my time when i first moved to the United States because I got very homesick and used the internet TOO much! I could have utilized that time to study instead of chat with strangers! Nowadays I only used the internet to check my email, do research for classes, talk to my family and friends on MSN Messenger.

As was the case with Hassan, Alia describes a common pattern of Internet hyperbole and experimentation, transforming into culturally acceptable use and normalization of the technology as a part of day-to-day life. Long-term use patterns mimic both the social design of the context and the user. For Alia, long-term uses of the Internet will help her studies, will keep her in touch with family and friends and people she knows already, even if in the beginning, she experimented, at great risk to her reputation, with "bad things that people shouldn’t do."

Conclusion

This paper examines those places and occasions where the Internet's cultural, social and political implications emerge as public phenomena in young Kuwaiti lives. Using university students at Kuwait University and abroad as a barometer for the future, I asked young people to narrate their negotiations of culture, identity and the Internet. The stories they told suggest that that Internet use by youths is creating new forms of communication across gender lines, interrupting traditional social rituals, and giving young people new autonomy in how they run their lives. These narratives support the findings of surveys which have been conducted by analysts from 1996-2001. Some important findings should be highlighted. Clearly, the Internet means different things to young Kuwaiti women than it does to their male counterparts. Women are not afforded the same freedoms to talk across gender lines in public, because of the need to preserve their reputations. Thus the Internet is seen as a useful tool, even among women from liberal, cosmopolitan backgrounds. Secondly, while many Kuwaitis are concerned about the potential misuses of the technology, and are vocal about exactly what these misuses constitute, these concerns have not stopped them or their peers from being Internet active. Thirdly, pre-existing value systems help to shape long-term use. Even if experimentation occurs, in the end, many Kuwaitis adjust their Internet usage to be compatible with their upbringing, and the norms and values of their society. We are left to wonder if important signs of experimentation cannot help but stimulate processes of change over time as young people redefine norms and values for future generations. At present, however, the weight of contextual variables, from gender, to class, to ideology, to culture, continue to influence Internet practices strongly, even among the young.

Footnotes

1.Signs of growing religious conservatism in Kuwait include the increased frequency with which women wear the hijab (veil), an increase in Islamic programming on radio and television, and an increase in public discursive space dedicated to matters concerning Islam in newspapers, on posters and road signs, and in everyday conversations. Al-Watan newspaper in 1997, for example, began publishing a special insert on Fridays which is dedicated to religious affairs in Kuwait and beyond. Religious issues, such as segregating Kuwait University, increasing the hours dedicated to religious education in government schools, and prohibiting public gatherings, like fashion shows and concerts, where people who are not related or married might be likely to mingle, are increasingly common in Kuwaiti Parliament (beginning with the Parliament of 1992 and beyond).

At the same time that religious affairs occupy an increasingly prominent location in Kuwaiti public life, there is a strong liberal backlash against such thinking. Thus, when Parliament recently passed a law requiring Kuwait University to be gender segregated, within a week, students opposing the ruling obtained signatures from more than half the entire student body stating that such an act would be a violation of civil and human rights. The presence of the Internet in this complicated sea of political and social change is leading to an equally complex set of usages and impacts, some tending towards greater religious conservatism like the enhancement of Muslim identity, and others leading to overt transgressions of typical social codes, opportunities for women's activism in seeking the vote, and more liberal forms of interaction among youths from different genders. Where such tensions and experiments will lead Kuwaiti society remains an important issue to watch unfold.

References

Abbas, S. (1997). Kuwait University student attitudes toward the Internet. Unpublished survey.

Al-Mazeedi, M. L., & Ibrahim, A. I. (1998). The educational and social effects of the Internet on Kuwait University students. Paper presented at the Conference on Information Superhighway, Safat, Kuwait.

Abbas, H. (2001, October 14). Internet’s impact on Kuwaiti youth. Kuwait Times, p.1.

Cukier, K. N. (1999). Internet governance and the ancien regime. Swiss Political Science Review, 5(1), 132-57.

DITnet (1999, August 5). Internet reaches the layman in the Middle East. Retrieved from http://www.apnic.net/mailing-lists/s-asia-it/archive/1999/08/msg00014.html.

Kuwait to add Internet to government schools (2001, October 13). Kuwait Times, p. 1.

Wheeler, D. (2001). The Internet and public culture in Kuwait. Gazette, 63(2-3), 187-201.

About the Author

Deborah L. Wheeler holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. For the past 6 years she has taught at the University of Washington, holding appointments in the Jackson School of International Studies, the Center for Internet Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She was one of the first scholars in the U.S. to conduct field work on the development and impact of the Internet in the Islamic World. Over the past 7 years she has conducted field studies in Kuwait, Dubai, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, and Morocco. Her publications include articles in Communication Research, Middle East Journal, Digest of Middle East Studies, and several edited volumes. She is presently completing a book on the development and impact of the Internet in Kuwait. She has lectured nationally and internationally on technology and society issues with a special focus on the importance of gender and culture in regulating technological change.

JCMC 8 (2) January 2003

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