Abstract
Cultural citizenship suggests that people negotiate what it means to be a citizen and belong to a nation. Social media is an online space where women can practise citizenship, where the sense of belonging and norms of what it means to be a citizen are negotiated. This study explored how women in the United Arab Emirates use social media as a public space for negotiating an Emirati identity. Focus groups were conducted with young Emirati women. Results reflected the complexities of women’s move from private to public online spaces in a society where it is uncommon for women to participate in public life. This research offers theoretical implications for the role of social media in facilitating cultural citizenship processes outside Western contexts.
Keywords
The concept of citizenship is multifaceted, and previous research has highlighted the different ways of practising citizenship. For example, economic citizenship has been conceptualized as ‘the right to an occupation of one’s choice’ and has been used to explore women’s participation in public life (see Moghadam, 2013: 77). Communication research has focused on the political aspects of citizenship, exploring concepts such as citizenship norms, ‘a shared set of expectations about the citizen’s role in politics.’ (Dalton, 2008: 78). Previous research used democratic theory to explore norms and expectations regarding political participation as a way of practising citizenship (see Gagrcin et al., 2022). The concept of good citizenship has highlighted the processes of exclusion from political life when some groups do not have the qualifications to participate (not being able to vote due to being illiterate) or when their participation is presented as less valuable (see Gagrcin, 2024). However, little research has explored the negotiation of citizenship beyond political life. This study seeks to contribute to this line of research by exploring how young women use social media to negotiate cultural citizenship.
Citizenship is closely related to the concept of identity. Who is accepted as a citizen and who is not, who feels a sense of belonging to a nation and who does not, reflects how a society constructs national identity. Identities have previously been conceptualized as ‘forms of cultural narratives which constitute commonalities and differences between self and others’ (Yuval-Davis, 2001: 61). The construction of a national identity is facilitated by the processes of struggle and negotiation related to gender, class, political, and religious differences (Yuval-Davis, 2001).
Media can serve as a channel and a space for the negotiation of identities since media ‘reflect, produce and reproduce norms and stereotypes and therefore also have the potential to make sociocultural changes in society’ (Mannila, 2017: 7). Social media plays a particular role in the negotiation of identity: social media platforms allow for a multitude of voices, as users become content producers and can comment on or share others’ posts to show their disagreement or agreement (Jenkins et al., 2013). In an ideal situation, social media fosters egalitarian spaces (Aström and Karlsson, 2016), providing communication opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women (Spierings and Jacobs, 2016). By creating content along with other women, females may develop feelings of belonging to a community (Stavrositu and Sundar, 2012). Indeed, some research in the Middle East has shown that women find social media empowering (e.g. AlAmmary, 2022). Through mediatization and technologization processes, social media contributes to how identity is negotiated.
However, social media can also restrict representations of women’s roles and allow patriarchal views to find their way into mainstream discourses, facilitated by social media affordances that create a network effect (e.g., Graham, 2016). For example, research shows that online or networked misogyny can promote structural inequality among women (e.g., Jane, 2012, 2017; Koirala, 2020). Feminist research has discussed online and networked misogyny as attempts on the Internet and social media ‘to create a toxic support system for men to spread sexist narratives’ (Dickel and Evolvi, 2023: 4). Online misogyny is not limited to a particular area of the world and is reflected in studies from Western countries. For example, the study of two online websites, Return of Kings and A Voice for Men reflected messages of verbal abuse against women, as well as the dissemination of conspiracy theories about #MeToo movements and calls to bring back patriarchal values (Dickel and Evolvi, 2023). In the political context, misogyny was found to be part of the discourse that far-right movements use to maintain or rebuild patriarchal relations (Banet-Weiser, 2018). Thus, social media provides a platform for the inclusion of women but also for the exclusion of and aggression towards women in various parts of the world.
In the Middle East, initiatives to increase women’s participation in public life have not always been smooth, sometimes creating ‘tension between states’ modernizing and traditional impulses’ (Moghadam, 2013: 43). In politically stable Middle Eastern states, such as the United Arab Emirates, governments continue to expand female citizenship opportunities and content (Maktabi, 2022). One of the testaments to the UAE leadership’s commitment to increasing women’s participation in political life was the decision to allocate half of the seats in the UAE’s Federal National Council to women in 2019 (Salama, 2018) and the launch of the National Strategy for Empowerment of Emirati Women (Gulf News, 2015). By encouraging women in politics and women in the workforce, the UAE government aimed ‘to promote gender equality and empowerment of women and girls at all levels’ (UAE Government, n.d.). At the same time, the country was criticized for a lack of a proper understanding of gender equality, exemplified by handing gender equality awards exclusively to men and institutions (Magra, 2019).
Although women in the UAE legally have the right to study, work, travel and participate in politics, it is traditionally uncommon for women to engage in public life, and many families still do not accept mixing between genders in the workplace (Abdallah, 2015). Likewise, traveling alone for Emirati women is socially unacceptable, although there are no legal limitations (e.g. Erogul et al., 2019). Women are encouraged by the state to study and work. However, some families still view women exclusively as homemakers who should not participate in public life. Thus, although Emirati women are legally accorded similar rights to men, they often do not have the same cultural rights and resources as men at work, in politics, and on social media. Being excluded from public life, women have fewer opportunities than men to construct what it means to be an Emirati woman. Thus, social media is a valuable space that may allow such negotiations to take place. This study used the cultural citizenship theoretical approach, conceptualizing cultural citizenship as a discursive process in which belonging to a nation-state or a community is negotiated and social identities are formed through cultural practices, including communication (see Delanty, 2002; Ong, 1999).
The purpose of this study was three-fold. First, building on previous studies of citizenship, identity construction and media (e.g.Klaus and Lünenborg, 2012), this research sought to explore the role of social media in cultural citizenship. Second, this study aimed to contribute to limited research on women’s participation in the Arab world, especially in the Gulf region. The UAE provides a useful context for the study due to the increasing number of female public figures who break some norms by engaging actively on social media. Lastly, the study sought to address the criticism of communication research focusing on the experiences of white women and disregarding women of various racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds (see Golombisky, 2015; Thompson, 2001). The study furthers previous research by answering the following question.
RQ: How do young Emirati females make sense of women’s participation on social media?
Theoretical framework
This study uses the cultural citizenship perspective to explore Emirati women’s perceptions of media representations of other Emirati women (Rosaldo, 1994; Turner, 1994). Early research conceptualized citizenship as determined by civil, political and social rights (see Marshall, 1992). However, as Beaman (2016) argued, the idea of citizenship ‘does not acknowledge how one could possess [legal] rights and still be marginalized’ (p. 850). More recent scholarship emphasized citizenship as social belonging, an instrument of both inclusion and exclusion, allowing for degrees of belonging and creating such categories as full and second-class citizens (see Beaman, 2016).
The concept of cultural citizenship helps to understand citizenship as a cultural process, looking at full citizenship as ‘inherently cultural, in that ideas regarding worthy members of a citizenry are based on cultural assumptions’ (Beaman, 2016: 852). Cultural citizenship assumes certain rights, such as the right to belong to a community, to freely express personal views and preferences (Hermes, 2006) and to be different (Rosaldo, 1999). It also comes with terms and obligations accompanying belonging, such as respecting other people’s opinions and differences (Hermes, 2006). Yet the foundational idea behind cultural citizenship is that any country accommodates various diversities based on ethnic background, age and gender, to name a few, and ‘in a plural society, one group must not dictate another group’s notion of dignity, thriving, and well-being’ (Rosaldo, 1994: 410).
Two assumptions are central to the concept of cultural citizenship. First, cultural citizenship is socially and culturally constructed (see Ong, 1996). Cultural citizenship is a ‘dynamic and ambiguous process of affirming a sense of belonging embodied in and appropriated through practices of citizenship’ (Klaus and Lünenborg, 2012: 203). It is not something one possesses but rather something that is practiced, that is, a ‘set of strategies and practices to invoke processes of empowerment in order to subversively listen and to speak up in the public sphere’ (Klaus and Lünenborg, 2012: 204). For example, the study by García-Sánches (2013) explored educational discourses related to Moroccan immigrant children in Spain, looking at three strategies that fostered exclusion: distinction (acts that highlight differences, e.g. through tokenism), authentication (identifying genuine and non-genuine identities) and authorization (legitimation of a specific identity). Moroccan children engaged in those everyday cultural citizenship practices in their responses to teachers by ‘displaying their biliteracy skills and knowledge, by answering negatively to teachers’ questions, and by providing counter-narratives to those of teachers’ (García-Sánches, 2013: 489) in an attempt to question and reject the existing structures of belonging.
Second, cultural citizenship is impacted by power as a practice driven by powerful individuals in governments and civil societies at large. Ong (1996) defined cultural citizenship as ‘cultural practices and beliefs produced out of negotiating the often ambivalent and contested relations with the state and its hegemonic forms that establish the criteria of belonging within a national population and territory’ (p. 738). Furthermore, Ong (1996) emphasized the role of power in the construction of cultural citizenship, arguing that ‘becoming a citizen depends on how one is constituted as a subject who exercises or submits to power relations’ (p. 738). In other words, the cultural citizenship perspective is sensitive to power differentials within a society and how those power differentials may impact social constructions of who deserves to be a citizen and who does not. The cultural citizenship framework may help reveal the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion and how some groups in a country are denied equal status with other groups (see Beaman, 2016).
Media, particularly social media, can play an important role in cultural citizenship processes. Previous research suggested that digital media could provide avenues for citizens to contest the imposed hegemonic discourses on belonging and exclusion. For example, El Marzouki (2018) explored how, in Morocco, the use of digital media allowed an alternative discourse on young people who were presented by the state as ‘leftover’ second-class citizens (as opposed to French-educated, urban first-class citizens). The study showed how the user-generated YouTube series used dark humor to talk about the everyday life of a youth from a marginalized stratum of Moroccan society. El Marzouki (2018) argued that participatory practices, made possible by digital media, served as ‘means of contesting and subverting hegemonic discourses’, discourses communicated on television and radio that were ‘dominated by state agendas of modeling proper citizenship’ (pp. 159–160).
Social media can be seen as ‘a particular form of cultural production’ that can be ‘both an engine and an actor in the processes of self-making and being-made, in which people acquire their individual, group-specific, and social identities’ (Klaus and Lünenborg, 2012: 204). Previous research has explored the role of mass media and digital media in how cultural citizenship has been constructed and contested (e.g. Riegert, 2015; Wu, 2012), looking at diversity beyond differences in ethnic backgrounds. For example, a study of the Chinese social networking platform Renren showed how young netizens creatively used an online parody called egao as ‘an act of cultural citizenship to negotiate shifting social and cultural norms, and calling attention to social and economic problems in China’s post-socialist transition’, contrasting the official rhetoric in a country with tight state censorship (Zou, 2020: 132).
Diversity within media representations is more important than quantity, as diverse representations expose individuals and social groups, including marginalized ones, to various information, knowledge, and experiences and also participation opportunities, which offer citizens various elements to identify with (see Lünenborg and Maier, 2013). Hence, the sense-making process, i.e. the perception, interpretation and identification with media representations in a given cultural context, occurs as a cultural practice in which identity constructions become visible (see Klaus and Lünenborg, 2012). In this study, the process in which Emirati women become active interpreters of media presentations of other Emirati women can be seen ‘as chances of empowerment in media society during which cultural citizenship is appropriated’ (Klaus and Lünenborg, 2012: 210). Social media may become a channel of individual expression, a space for diverse ways to experience belonging to the local community, and an avenue for the practice of cultural citizenship.
Contextual background: The United Arab Emirates
The case of the UAE is particularly interesting due to the dichotomous relationship between a capitalistic, commercial system and Islamic values. On the one hand, the country seeks to ‘establish a new benchmark for gender empowerment in the region’ (Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs, n.d.:12) within the larger context of the country’s development goals to become a powerful and attractive nation in a globally oriented society. To achieve its goal of gender empowerment, the UAE government undertook several initiatives, including the opening of a new UN Women liaison office in Abu Dhabi (UN Women, 2016) and the establishment of women’s organizations such as the General Women’s Union and Dubai Women Establishment (Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs, n.d.).
To address the deficit of women in the workforce, which was often related to an earlier lack of access to education (Abdulla and Ridge, 2011; Madsen and Cook, 2010), public universities introduced programmes aiming to encourage and equip UAE women to start their own businesses (Majumdar and Varadarajan, 2013). In recent years, the number of women enrolled in tertiary education has increased significantly. From 2012 to 2018, the percentage enrolments of women rose from 42% to 58% (Embassy of the UAE in Washington, DC, n.d., ; WENR, 2018). While the Global Gender Gap Index 2018 showed that the UAE has reduced its gender gap, mainly due to increased scores in the categories dedicated to women in parliament and ministerial positions, the country still ranked low in the worldwide context (World Economic Forum [WEF], 2018).
It is also important to briefly explain the socio-political realities in the UAE. Kinship and tribal affiliation are important aspects of Emirati identity, and kin identities continue to influence modern life in the UAE (see Samin, 2016) politically and socially. As in other Gulf countries, the UAE political system is closely intertwined with tribal identities – varying tribes have various degrees of formal and informal power (see Freer, 2019). The role of tribes in UAE society is difficult to trace – tribal identities are salient, yet they run through the socio-political fabric of the country. In looking at tribal constituents in Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, Freer (2019) described tribes in the Gulf as ‘the most influential institutions in the region’ (p. 290) and tribalism as increasingly ‘linked to modern life and practices as well as national identity’ (p. 276). Socially, tribal identity is important in fostering national identity and ‘segregating’ the UAE population from the expatriates, where tribal is ‘a marker of identity [more] than a reference to a way of life’ (Freer, 2019: 276). The Emirati population comprises only about 10% of all residents of the UAE, and the number of international residents coming to work in the UAE has been steadily growing (UN Data, 2024). Thus, there is a strong emphasis in the country to protect the local culture, partly by fostering tribal identities.
Social media has offered Emirati women new opportunities for representation (El-Sayed et al., 2015: 107). As a country with a high level of social network penetration, the UAE provides a fertile ground for internet engagement (Statista, 2024). The social media most used by UAE residents in recent years are WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok (see Northwestern University in Qatar, 2019; Statista, 2022). UAE social media influencers play a prominent role among the country’s young people: a study of college students (with UAE nationals representing 44.5% of the sample) showed that college students spent more than half of their time on social media content from influencers and celebrities (Zaid et al., 2021). The country seeks to attract influencers, earning the label of ‘world’s social media capital’ and hosting at least 25,000 influencers by 2024 (Sameer, 2024). UAE social media influencers focus on topics such as food, fashion, fitness, and entertainment. They come from various backgrounds: from Arab-speaking countries at large (e.g. the Iraqi make-up artist Huda Kattan (@hudabeauty with more than 54 million followers on Instagram) and from the UAE (e.g. Taim Al Falasi @taimalfalasi with almost 5 million followers on Instagram).
Men and women in the UAE differ in their behaviours on and perceptions of social media. A report from 2020 found that men were using most social media websites more than women, except for Snapchat (Statista, 2020). Another, previously cited, study by Zaid et al. (2021) looked specifically at college students and found that female and male college students in the UAE did not differ in how much time they spent on social media. However, men and women differed in their perceptions of it: young male college students viewed social media as liberating only in terms of expressing political views. Regarding expressing their identities, male college students felt equally free to express themselves online and offline, even saying that ‘society is less judgmental with boys than it is with girls’(p. 211). In contrast, female students experienced social judgement more on social media than offline. But online, women could get support from their friends and file legal action against negative comments.
The UAE has relatively tight regulations on social media use. Criticism of the UAE government and religion, and negative portrayals of other individuals and/or Emirati culture are punishable (see Agarib, 2019). Social media influencers need a nationwide licence, as well as a licence for the emirate where they reside and operate (Sameer, 2024). Given the outlined dichotomy between the UAE’s goal to becoming a world-class economy meeting the demands of contemporary society while at the same time preserving aspects of a traditional Emirati and Islamic society, women’s inclusion and empowerment may be a challenging task. Women continue to grapple with mixed messages and ambiguity about their role in UAE society, sometimes torn between government rhetoric and expectations from their families (see Crabtree, 2007).
Methodology
In order to gain deeper insights into how young female Emiratis make sense of women’s participation on social media, we conducted qualitative focus groups. Qualitative methods are particularly useful in studies on topics with limited previous research. The focus group method is valuable in studying attitudes, preferences, priorities, and beliefs (Lune and Berg, 2017). Due to the conversational environment, focus groups allow participants ‘to divulge emotions that often do not emerge in other forms of questioning’ (Krueger, 1994: 11), and ‘more than any other method, they enable us to study participants’ rationalizations and justifications’ (Lune and Berg, 2017: 98). Because this study sought to explore sense-making about a traditionally controversial topic, focus groups were chosen as the most appropriate data collection method.
In total, ten focus groups were conducted. The sample comprised 58 female Emirati students at a federal university in the UAE. Participants were between 18 and 26 years old. University students were chosen for two reasons. First, the majority of young women are enrolled in university studies. The UAE Embassy in the United States reports that 77 percent of Emirati women pursue higher education (Embassy of the UAE in Washington, DC, n.d.). Second, access to the female Emirati population remains limited, as women traditionally stay at home other than for work and family visits. Thus, the university served as an access point and a secure space in which to conduct focus groups with young Emirati women. All participants used social media except one.
Participants were recruited through advertisements on campus and included students across various academic disciplines. They varied in terms of family backgrounds: some were from families belonging to the oldest Abu Dhabi subtribes, while others were from mixed families, in which the mother was from a different country. The diversity of participants’ backgrounds was evident in discussions of career opportunities based on family connections, with some reporting that they sometimes benefitted from their family name. At the same time, others stated that they had no family connections that could be used to get a job, for example. Considering the small size of the Emirati community, detailed participant data have been omitted from this paper to ensure confidentiality.
Each focus group included between four and seven participants. Five of the 10 focus groups were conducted by young Emirati female facilitators, who received training in qualitative data collection, and five by a non-Emirati researcher, living in the UAE and familiar with the Emirati culture. The purpose of including young Emirati women in data collection was to explore any topics and opinions that participants possibly did not feel comfortable sharing with a non-Emirati researcher.
The duration of focus groups ranged between 30 and 60 minutes, with an average length of 37 minutes. Focus groups discussions were recorded and fully transcribed. All focus groups were conducted in English. Because English is the university’s language of instruction, all participants spoke English. A guide listing open-ended questions was used to facilitate the focus groups. Participants were asked questions about their social media use, their knowledge and perceptions about Emirati women online and their perceptions of Emirati women politicians on social media. For example, one of the first questions asked, ‘How do you use social media?’ Another question focused on Emirati women in government, namely ‘What do you think about Emirati female public figures, such as women in government, posting about themselves?’ When new and/or unexpected topics emerged, other questions were added to the focus group discussions. For example, members of one focus group brought an example of social media influencers posting videos of their wedding on their public social media channels, and the topic elicited a lot of conflicting views on whether it was appropriate or not. Thus, questions were added to probe participants’ opinions.
Two researchers analysed the data separately according to the following steps. First, the data were reduced, including deleting irrelevant information. Second, to uncover topics and themes, the data were read thoroughly multiple times and compared with each other. Then, codes were applied to the data, guided by the literature on cultural citizenship. Following further analysis of the codes and the data associated with them, major categories were developed, each consisting of several codes. One researcher used the NVivo program, and the other researcher used the Excel program to organize and code the data. The results section uses those major categories to answer the research question.
Results
The research question asked how young Emirati females made sense of Emirati women’s participation on social media. Data analysis suggested three themes: the role of families in rules of engagement on social media, perceptions of public versus private social media accounts and constructions of Emirati culture and Emirati women on social media.
Emirati women on social media as UAE symbols
Focus group data reflected the importance given to how Emirati women are portrayed, especially to societies outside the UAE. Protecting the Emirati culture internally and projecting the Emirati culture image externally were both discussed. Participants in all focus groups referred to women’s portrayals on social media affecting the image of the UAE. Participants said that social media showed women’s achievements and hard work but also represented the UAE to other countries in the Gulf and the world. For example, when speaking of the social media activity of Emirati women leaders, one participant said that women in government ‘are showing to other people, not only in the UAE but the Gulf area and the world, that the UAE women are powerful, and they can do whatever they want in their working field’. Another focus group participant said, ‘I am very happy that I can always read about [women politicians’] achievements, and this means that even the whole world can see how the UAE women are successful.’
Although the increasing participation of Emirati women on social media was seen as positive and inspiring, it implied certain norms that had to be followed when women posted on social media. For example, one participant in a focus group questioned the perception that every Emirati woman should represent the UAE. She shared that it put unnecessary pressure on young women to adhere to a certain standard of what an exemplary Emirati woman would be like. She said: “It’s also the idea that if an Emirati girl is posting something and it’s public, and everyone has access to it, she is an ambassador for the UAE. And she is the representation of the UAE, and if she is doing something crazy, then people will think all Emiratis are crazy. There is a big idea, it’s pushed even from when we are in school, that everywhere you go, you are representing the UAE. You are an Emirati ambassador. And now social media just amplifies it because it is a huge audience.”
Public versus private social media accounts
Participants spoke about their expectations of what could be posted in private and public accounts. They described private accounts as being closed to public viewing, and where content was available only to those included in ‘friends’, whereby the account owner could control who viewed her posts. Typically, ‘friends’ on private social media consist of female family members and friends. On private accounts, women did not feel restricted in posting personal photos, and some women were without an abaya – a garment that all Emirati women wear to cover their hair when in public. Private accounts were viewed as a private space – where a woman could act as if she was at home with her girlfriends. On the other hand, public accounts, open to anyone on the internet to see the posts, were rare, according to participants. In both cases, when women created social media accounts, they usually did not include their last name or a personal profile picture. Anonymizing their accounts allowed women to avoid the fear of being shamed and possibly impacting their families. One participant in a focus group shared her plan to create a public account, describing the dilemma she faced when making the decision:
I made a public account on Instagram recently. But I am still not sure. It is scary [for] an Emirati woman. It’s really scary to put yourself out there because, as a woman, you are really really judged the moment you put any sort of picture that’s public. With your face on it, with your name on it. I don’t understand why, but it’s there. Some people would even argue that you can’t even say your own name in public.
The conversation later continued:
. . . It makes you not even want to post anything. I swear. Because you are like – oh my God, I am going to post this, they are going to say, what is she wearing, what is she saying, what is she doing, what is in her bio, what’s this, what is that. It’s like everything; it’s just under the microscope.
Just don’t post it.
That’s why a lot of girls don’t.
The challenges associated with opening a public profile on social media were seen as an issue for women and not for men. In the same focus group, the facilitator continued asking if private accounts are also challenging for men. The following interaction took place:
No, it’s very easy for them to be public with their face.
They don’t have [this] issue. But the women in the UAE especially, if she posts something sensitive or against the culture, that might affect the culture . . .
When probed about what is ‘bad’ and ‘against the culture’ to post, participants said that an Emirati woman posting her photo, even if fully covered except for her face, was controversial and would be perceived as against the Emirati culture by some families.
Women explained that their posts on social media would influence their image – but even more so the image of their families. Therefore, they would opt for private accounts with verified female connections or an anonymized public account without any private information or personal photos to avoid any criticism or judgment.
Women’s citizen norms
Participants spoke about the stigma associated with women being on any screen – whether mass media or social media. For example, one participant said, ‘I want to work in the media, I want to prove that not only media is all about men but women also. And we can break these beliefs [. . .] that women should not be in front of the camera and should not be on the television. I want these beliefs to disappear.’
Furthermore, participants discussed what was ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ content for women to post. Views differed, with some participants taking a traditional approach and some participants discussing women playing different and new roles in society. All the focus groups showed that family played the leading role in deciding opportunities for women’s engagement with Emirati society, including social media. For example, the following interaction occurred in one of the focus groups:
But you remember you mentioned it is controversial to put your face on social media? [. . .] So, what is the difference between you posting your photos and those [female] public figures posting theirs?
Honestly, if my family allowed, [. . .] they are very strict. Because of the [family] name that I have, it’s hard to post my face. Or anything. In my opinion, I am not interested in it anyway, but I know how much responsibility I need to take if I were to do that. But yeah, some people can’t post because of the name. Sometimes.
An interesting discussion occurred in a focus group about a wedding between two social media influencers who posted a video of them dancing together. Emirati weddings are held separately for men and women. Although it is usual, at the end of the wedding, for the bride and groom, together with their close families, to meet and take photographs together, it is uncommon for them to dance together, and the images are not shared publicly. Thus, when the Emirati couple shared images and videos of dancing together, it was seen as controversial. In the following interaction, one focus group member did not see it as controversial, while others emphasized that public posts should only reinforce traditional Emirati practices. This conversation reflected resistance to an evolving Emirati culture and a fear of social media allowing such change and, possibly, catalysing it:
They [married couple] can dance freely; they can do anything.
But they don’t have to post it.
As influencers on social media about the UAE, that’s why it was a problem. Everyone would be fine. Dance as much as you want till you die. But just don’t say that you are an Emirati, and this is the culture for us.This is not the culture.
I know it’s their wedding, but share it privately.
The discussion continued further with a more general discussion of citizenship norms –in which participants expressed conflicting views on the boundaries of Emirati women’s identity:
So I have a question, if an Emirati girl was just out there not representing culture, not representing image, not representing anything, but representing what social media was made for.
Yeah, but she can’t put in her bio ‘UAE’, ‘Emirati.’
Wait. Not representing anything other than herself. Then how would you react? She is just representing herself. That’s it.
First of all, I would appreciate it if she represented herself and that it [dancing at a wedding] is something that is not from our culture.
But herself, a part of herself, is the culture. She is Emirati. You can’t say, no, you are Emirati, but don’t put anything about the culture.
If she was part of the culture, she would be part of the culture. She would behave.
The negotiation of citizenship norms on social media took place in the absence of other public spaces. In another focus group, the facilitator probed into examples of such conversations:
It is an interesting idea that there are some things that we can discuss on social media but cannot in real life. What are some of the examples?
Discrimination against women. Like in University you have to scan the IDs. And there are, I think there are tweets about [inaudible] in the UAE, and they are talking, [. . .] there are a lot of families; they are pressuring the girls to follow the norm and not go outside. Just walk in a straight line; don’t go left. They are strict with their girls. So that’s why they are speaking out [on social media].
Citizen norms driven by family identities
Participants made sense of their own social media engagement as well as other Emirati women’s social media participation as driven by family identity. Some family names were presented as vital to traditional Emirati society, in the words of one participant, at ‘the root of Abu Dhabi’, and others were Emirati family names known to be more mixed and others had origins outside the UAE (e.g. Yemen, Iran, Qatar). Some participants called themselves ‘hybrid’ – those that had one Emirati parent and one non-Emirati parent (i.e. from another country, such as Egypt, the United States, the Philippines). For example, one participant spoke about her identity, saying, ‘They don’t call us hybrid. They call it the daughter or the son, and then the mom’s nationality [. . .] they say it in a bad way, like, she is not fully local.’ Participants considered these family identifications when making sense of how they themselves and other young Emiratis should behave on social media.
Diversity in family and ethnic backgrounds was evident in social media posts through visuals. For example, one participant recalled sharing videos from her brother’s wedding featuring Saudi and Yemeni traditions and music. Although she shared on a private social media account, the participant’s connections ‘were saying, - oh, so you are not pure Emirati. I told them – my family name is [redacted]. So, it is basically not something Emirati. So, people start, even message me on Instagram, on Snapchat: so, like the music is not local music. I told them – so what?’ Thus, social media became a platform that allowed the sharing of different ways to be an Emirati but could be used to single out those women who were not perceived as such.
Discussion
The results of the focus groups with young Emirati women reflected the complexities of identity construction online in a country where women have limited offline communication platforms for discussing what it means to be an Emirati woman. Focus group discussions reflected the tensions between government initiatives to increase women’s involvement in public life and the ‘traditional impulses’ discussed earlier by Moghadam (2013). Cultural citizenship for Emirati women appeared to be a complex process and reflected a negotiation between traditional values and citizenship norms.
On the one hand, focus group discussions pointed to a well-defined and quite rigid construction of an Emirati woman’s identity and expectations of how she should behave on social media, facilitated by women’s families moderating their public expression of identity, but also women themselves, guided by their own constructed and internalized cultural expectations of an Emirati women’s online behaviour. Emirati women’s expected public representations on social media were contrasted with the expected representation of Emirati men, who were perceived as having more freedom and acceptance in society. On the other hand, these expectations of rigidly defined Emirati women’s representations were contrasted with another, seemingly more progressive, narrative of modern women representing the nation on social media platforms. From that point of view, women were seen as a reflection of progress, portraying a country where women could be as successful as men. However, whether these seemingly conflicting approaches are different is questionable.
Treating women as symbols of the nation is not new. Previous research on nationalism and gender showed many cases worldwide of women being used as ‘standard-bearers of national identity’, as ‘vessels in which cultural value and collective aspirations are projected’ (Thomson, 2020: 4 and 8). One seminal study theorized the relationship among women, state and nation in five ways: women ‘(1) [as] biological reproducers of the members of national collectives; (2) as reproducers of the boundaries of national groups; (3) as active transmitters and producers of the national culture; (4) as symbolic signifiers of national difference; (5) as active participants in national struggles’ (Anthias and Yuval-Davis, 1989, as cited in Thomson, 2020: 4). The use of women in the construction of a nation has often been criticized as it gives women little agency (see Thomson, 2020). In the case of the UAE, women’s role appeared to be a negotiation between the state and the families. Ultimately, women were a topic and a consequence of negotiation rather than active participants and an empowered stratum of society. These processes were amplified by fear of social exclusion and strict regulations, limiting women’s social media use. The construction of a woman as a symbol, as a reproducer of national boundaries, appeared to limit the processes of cultural citizenship for women, restraining the possibilities for diversity.
The rigid perceptions of what it meant to be a national was previously described by García-Sánches (2013) as membership by ethno-prototype, that is, ‘an extreme formulation of ideal membership to a national, cultural, or ethnic group which precludes multiple allegiances and erases hybridity and different levels of belonging to multiple groups’ (p. 485). These processes were previously defined as the politics of belonging, ‘the dirty work of boundary maintenance’ (see Crowley, 1999). This study has shown that the politics of belonging emerged on social media, where women’s diverse messages and forms of participation sparked discussions about citizenship norms.
This study highlights the roles of power and social media in negotiating identity and also the relations among identity construction, citizenship norms, and power. The tensions between diverse views of who an Emirati woman is, on the one hand, and traditional views reproducing or maintaining patriarchy, on the other hand, were reflected in the discourses of the women themselves. Social media provided a space where cultural citizenship could be claimed and their identities re-imagined. Previous research has highlighted the role of mass media in maintaining national identity, suggesting that the sense of belonging to a nation is a process of imagination that the media can facilitate and that ‘media’s persistent and routine contribution to public imagination of nationalism is likely to endure’ (Guo et al., 2007: 478). This study suggests that social media allows attempts to re-imagine a national identity, yet these processes may still be regulated by state laws and social actors. In the UAE, women’s engagement in negotiations about Emirati identity was moderated by families and women themselves through self-censorship. In this regard, our research demonstrates that social media can potentially help women in the UAE negotiate a diverse and multifaceted Emirati identity. Still, these processes are negotiated against the norms for women’s engagement on social media and, ultimately, the previously defined norms for ‘good citizenship.’
Cultural citizenship is not a stable construct but a discursive process in which belonging and identities are formed and reformed through communication (Delanty, 2002; Ong, 1999). This study shows the various formats of communicating identity in a mediated society. Identities were communicated through music and dance, highlighting the symbolic representations of identity. Yuval-Davis (2006) suggested that identities are stories and narratives that may be cognitive but emotional and have a performative dimension. As this study suggests, social media affords multimodal representations of identity.
Conclusion
By examining the sense-making process of social media representations of Emirati women and how these affect one’s cultural and national belonging, our study contributes to a better understanding of the role of social media in cultural citizenship and women’s empowerment. The cultural citizenship perspective allowed us to look beyond women’s legal rights, focusing on social belonging. However, the study is not without limitations.
First, choosing focus groups as a method had its limitations. Social media and women’s empowerment are sensitive issues in the UAE, and some participants were hesitant to share their personal views in a group. Considering the rather conservative Emirati culture and stringent media laws, participants may have provided socially desirable answers. Moreover, focus group discussions depend on the dynamics between the participants, and dominant participants might bias other participants. In some focus groups, the dynamic was relatively low and there was not much discussion between participants. Second, focus group participants were young university students, mostly from urban areas, and thus had a comparatively privileged background and had been exposed to progressive ideas at university. Education and the financial and social background of individuals could affect their media competence and sense-making about media. Therefore, future studies should include women of different social and educational backgrounds.
Despite those limitations, the study offered insights into the processes of cultural citizenship on social media and the role of power and artistic expression in the negotiation of belonging. In a mediated society, media is an essential cultural resource that may influence individual and collective meaning-making and, therefore, our self-making and identification processes. Future research should further explore the role of social media in the politics of belonging, focusing on representations of various groups and the symbolic nature of these representations on social media. Lastly, it appears particularly important to move beyond the superficial levels of representation to critically explore who these representations benefit.
Footnotes
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research was partially funded by the Strategic Research Area “The Middle East in the Contemporary World” (MECW) at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden.
