Framing the online women's movements in the Arab world

The events of the Arab Spring led to several reforms in the Arab world and facilitated the creation of feminist movements. Social networking sites such as Facebook were used as tools to promote this kind of online activism and create a collective secular identity for the members of these movements. This study investigated over 220,000 Facebook posts and comments taken from three online feminist movements which supported gender equality in the Arab world. The results show that these movements sometimes face fierce resistance from Islamists who believe that their religion is under attack. Instead of having one type of poster and commentator, three main online groups are identified; each one competes to garner attention and support from the public.

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