Title: Iraq's democratisation: Communicating women's rights and social change in cyberspace
Abstract: In 2003 George W. Bush launched a military and political campaign to
invade and democratise Iraq. After three trips to the polls during the three
years of the United States’ occupation, the Iraqi people have
democratically elected representatives to oversee the physical and political
rebuilding of their country. Numerous problems associated with the
democratisation process have fueled debate between politicians and
academics. These views have been represented in mainstream media and
in official discourse. Additional commentaries on democratisation in Iraq
have been located in Cyberspace. These commentaries are known as
blogspots and offer a rare insight into the everyday life of Iraqi people as
they face not only political change but also the social chaos of occupation
under a foreign invader. This paper will outline the research potential of
data from cyberspace and the blogosphere as contributing to an
understanding of the social ramifications of democratisation via invasion
and war for the women of Iraq. I will present a preliminary analysis of the
blog Baghdad Burning and propose that this blog provides data which
has the potential to significantly contribute to our understanding of how the
cultural and behavioral values and norms of Iraq are affected by the United
States military and political presence. Specifically, I will discuss the
implications of Iraq’s new democratic constitution for women’s rights.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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