Virtual Activism in Second Life: Reach out and touch someone
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 21:28 | 
Virtual Activism has been in Second Life since 2007: we now have an island and we are pioneering the use of virtual worlds for nonprofit organizations and activism in the Middle East since 2007.
In addition to activities in-world, Marlyn Tadros has written a paper that was presented at the 43rd Annual MESA conference in November 2009 entitled e-Hijab: Muslim Women in the Metaverse. The panel was focused on how Arab women have adapted to technology and was entitled "Reach Out and Touch Someone: Arab Women Connect with New Communication and Internet Technologies."
The panel included other academics who wrote separate papers that will be published by the International Journal of Learning and Media [IJLM] in a special issue on Arab women and technology.The panel summary was as follows:
Mobile phones. Blogs. Wikis. Metaverses. Facebook. New communication technologies have permeated the Arab world along with most countries around the globe. These technologies often help empower those who may not have access to more traditional methods of gaining a voice in public debate and civil society. In the social sphere, they can foster the creation and/or maintenance of social networks outside the home and beyond the domestic sphere. The relative ‘equal access’ of such communication tools as well as their possibility for ‘play’ in self-identity and representation are particularly salient characteristics for women.
This panel focuses on ways in which women in North Africa and the Middle East use communication technologies to remain active players in the development and maintenance of both social and political, virtual and physical, communities. In the first paper, the implications of the current move to Web 3.0, which enables the creation of 3-D virtual worlds, among other things, is examined through the perspective of several Arab-Muslim women who have turned to Second Life to explore the limits of their identity in cyberspace. In the second paper, Morocco and Saudi Arabia are case studies for how Arab feminists use Facebook and blogging to coalesce around specific issues and to promote social change. More specifically, it examines how religion often holds a central role in their calls to action. The third and fourth papers focus on social communication patterns within two different groups of women in Morocco. In the first, the use of cell phones by maids is examined within a framework of the transformative qualities of mobile telephony and how mobile phones have allowed maids not only to bridge the urban-rural divide but also to improve their economic situation and social status. The final paper examines the use of Facebook by recent college graduates from the most prominent English-instruction university in Morocco, Al Akhawayn University. This study examines how high-status women use Facebook to maintain social capital within a specifically Moroccan context.
You may also view the interview with Executive Director conducted by Real Biz in Second Life:
Last Updated (Thursday, 11 March 2010 12:44)
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