RAWA and the Democratic Potential of the Net
In looking at how Non-Government organisations utilise the internet for their various campaigns, it becomes obvious that there is a strong argument that favours the democratic potential of the internet. The group RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) is an Afghani women’s liberation group that far exceeds the caliber of most online activist groups. RAWA meets Schuler’s (1996, in Bickel, 2006) criteria for a truly active participatory group through its allowance for users to leave comments, accountability to the people and clarity of purpose (Bickel, 2006). RAWA’s primary purpose is to gain media attention to their cause and to collect donations to fund their various poverty, literacy, education and health projects. Users of the website can join the organisation’s Facebook or Twitter sites, fundraise in their local community or donate directly to the organisation. RAWA (2008) states that without the internet, it would have no means of distributing and disseminating its ideas, as the fundamentalist regime under which they operate renders the group immobile and powerless. RAWA is fighting for secular democracy and achieving major milestones in their quest that can only be attributed to the online identity they have created. Given the totalitarian environment within which they exist, RAWA operates under a cloak of darkness which the internet affords, with the internet being their only office.
RAWA has a very broad user appeal, although its target audience would appear to favour women and westerners (through its graphic images of women and children in a war-torn environment). This is clearly an international appeal, with RAWA seeking the assistance of people and organisations outside of Afghanistan to help them fight against their own countries’ regime. The site administrators are obviously very fluent in English and a number of other non-Latin based languages, with the option of translation into several other languages. After US icon Oprah Winfrey did a story on the organisation in 2004, it is conceivable that the group would now have a significant amount of help from outside the group and Afghanistan. However; the website is still reasonably under-developed, with a very early GUI look about the page. Links are not clearly displayed and the text tends to resemble a long letter or newspaper article. This may, however, be a deliberate choice to not over-commercialise the group or exploit its cause. The technology that administrators are working with in Afghanistan may also not be capable of sophisticated graphics and web2.0 applications. The site itself allows for a reasonable level of interactivity, with online petitions and mailing list subscriptions clearly presented on the site. The overall direction of the site is somewhat complicated, with the organisation appearing to seek participation from ordinary users to influence government bodies. It also appears to try and tackle government bodies at the same time. Crabtree (2003) makes the excellent point that the most effective use of the internet in political e-democracy is by using it as a tool to connect users to help each other. This would appear to be the main objective of RAWA, but peripheral side objectives clutter its primary purpose. It is plausible to suggest that RAWA are trying to connect to several different networks to create a viable conflict within the discourse (Ippolita and Rossiter, 2009).
RAWA utilises the democratic potential of the internet to bring attention to their cause. Bickel (2006) argues that the internet is giving a voice to a highly oppressed group that would otherwise have no means for entering the public sphere. Through their online campaign, RAWA has effectively created new discourses and online identities (Bickel, 2006). RAWA can be seen as joining what Kellner (2000: 313-315) describes as a “developing network of solidarity” who are “…interested in the politics and culture of the future [who] should be clear on the important roles of the new public spheres and intervene accordingly…”. In developing new discourses and online identities, RAWA is entering the new public spheres that new media has helped create and championing democratic change within their community. More than this, RAWA is “taking advantage of the internet’s contested terrain” (Bickel, 2006) and creating democratic change in a global context, with all of its publicity and support coming from foreign national powers (RAWA, 2008). It is yet to be seen whether RAWA will achieve its democratic goals in Afghanistan; however, it is undisputed that the major milestones RAWA has created in terms of women’s health, protection and education in Afghanistan has been due to its utilisation of new media technologies. New media has given a voice to the oppressed organisation of RAWA to enter the public sphere and set democratic agendas that can shape the way a nation is governed and it’s standing in a global political context.
References
Bickel, B, 2006, ‘Weapons of Magic: Afghan Women Asserting Voice via the Net’, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Vol. 8, No. 2, Accessed 12/9/08, Wiley Interscience Database
Crabtree, J, 2003, ‘Civic Hacking: A new agenda for E-Democracy’, openDemocracy, http://www.opendemocracy.net/media-edemocracy/article_1025.jsp, accessed 1/11/09
Ippolita, Geert L, Rossiter, N, 2009, ‘The Digital Given- 10 Web 2.0 Theses’, Network Cultures, http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/geert/2009/06/15/the-digital-given-10-web-20-theses-by-ippolita-geert-lovink-ned-rossiter/, accessed 1/11/09
Kellner, D, 2000, ‘Globalization and new social movements: Lessons for critical theory and pedagogy’, In N. Burbules C. Torres, Globalization and Education: Critical Perspectives (pp. 299–322), Routledge, New York, in Bickel, B, 2006, ‘Weapons of Magic: Afghan Women Asserting Voice via the Net’, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Vol. 8, No. 2, Accessed 12/9/08, Wiley Interscience Database
RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), 2009, Accessed 30/10/09, http://www.rawa.org
Schuler, D, 1996, New community networks: Wired for change, MA ACM Press and Addison-Wesley, in Bickel, B, 2006, ‘Weapons of Magic: Afghan Women Asserting Voice via the Net’, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, Vol. 8, No. 2, Accessed 12/9/08, Wiley Interscience Database
