'I have heard many descriptions for this revolution. Like Facebook Revolution. It was not a Facebook revolution, it started on the ground, when Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to his body, and the people in Sidi Bouzid started to demonstrate and were attacked by police. It cannot be called an internet revolution - hundreds of people lost their lives, people are still injured today. The internet just played the role of the mass media when the journalists couldn't do their work here.''
 

The Arab Spring has provided a platform to the unsung heroes of the Arab world. Women have always been behind-the-scene participants in the old order of Middle Eastern politics. With the rise of social media, women are finally coming out of their cocoons and taking centrestage in shaping the new geo-politics of the Middle East.

...Meanwhile, the third edition of the Dubai School of Government's Arab Social Media Report highlights the trend of women's increasing presence in social media. It tackles the issues of a "virtual" gender gap, whether Arab women perceive social media as a useful tool, and if this alternative media can potentially increase women's civic participation.

The report found that women in the Arab world constitute only a third of Facebook users, despite the fact that Arab women have been active on social media sites across the region throughout the Arab Spring.

iKNOW Politics, an online network dedicated to the advancement of women in politics around the world, has come to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It’s a country where women are significantly underrepresented politically and where, as the nation prepares for presidential and parliamentary elections next month, hundreds of women turned out to learn how the online network could help them build successful candidacies.

More than 250 women leaders, candidates, activists and representatives of women’s organizations came together for a Sept. 20 launch event that was followed by a week-long campaign school for 100 women planning to run in elections Nov. 28. During the last polls, held in 2006, fewer than 1,100 of 9,000 candidates for parliament were women. More women are expected to run this time.

19 September 2011 – 

Boosting women’s political participation and decision-making around the world is fundamental for democracy and essential for achieving sustainable development, women leaders taking part in a high-level event at the United Nations declared today.

“We stress the critical importance of women’s political participation in all contexts, including in times of peace, conflict and in all stages of political transition,” they said in a joint statement on advancing women’s political participation.

The event, among a series of meetings being held this week on the margins of the 66th session of the General Assembly, brought together women heads of State and government, including President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago, Roza Otunbaeva of Kyrgyzstan and Finland’s Tarja Halonen, as well as numerous government representatives and UN officials.