Cell Phones Changing the Face of the Middle East

photo credit: Phones for Sale?

Cell phones have created a new freedom in Middle Eastern society. In a conservative culture that segregates genders, and frowns on unsupervised dating, texting and calling has opened up a whole new paradigm shift. In addition, political activists and politicians are using text messaging to promote their causes as well as solicit votes.

Cell Phones Changing the Face of the Middle East

Several Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia and Jordon for example, banned cell phones with cameras. But Mass Communications Professor Ibrahim Abu Argoub of the University of Jordan’s Sociology Department says the ban didn’t last.

“It’s open now because people began smuggling cell phones with cameras - and they created a problem in society,” says the University of Jordan’s Ibrahim Abu Argoub. “Then they [authorities] initiated a law to punish anybody using the video camera or the cell [phone] with the video camera in wedding parties, inside the university, in the street,” he added.

Using cell phones to cheat in school is as much a problem in the Middle East as it is in the US. As in the US, school authorities are faced with banning cell phones completely in the classroom. (See my blog “Check Your Cell Phones at the Door.”) Obviously this is a universal problem and not just restricted to the US.

In a restricted society like the Middle East, cell phones create the opportunity for massive social change. People are using text messaging to gather forces for political demonstrations, changing laws and campaigning. Demonstrators are uploading photos of clashes to the Internet to further awareness. In 2005, Kuwaiti women, who had been denied the right to vote, used mass text messaging to organize a successful campaign to gain voting rights.

We live in an evolving world of technology. Science and technology have long led the way to changing social norms. The latest communication technology will of course reshape our world. We see less drastic changes here in the US, but in 3rd world countries or restrictive societies like the Middle East, the changes are happening at light speed. I would like to think all this will open up the world and create better and more harmonious communication. Do you think that’s a viable possibility?