internet governance

When it comes to decision making, policies and advocacy, in most cases women are usually left behind especially in relation to ICTs. I must say that I am pleased with the representation of women at the African Internet Governance Forum and before I continue I must commend the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) for making this…

‘Multi-stakeholderism is about losing.’ I first heard this statement on the first day of the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) in Dr David Souter’s lecture and overview of the Internet governance ecosystem and its key players

It all started a couple of weeks ago when the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) invited me to apply for participation in an exchange with women’s rights, internet rights and sexual rights activists to discuss, exchange and build awareness and understanding of the relationship between gender, women’s rights and internet governance. I had not realized that at end of it, I would not…

It is on again! The third African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) kicked off on Tuesday September 2015 in Addis Abba. The 2015 #AfriSIG is a diverse and dynamic group of people with different gender identities, expertise and age. Being at the AfriSIG is a whole new experience to me and has made me realise how little I know about the internet and internet governance in particular despite…

Before I attended the Gender and Internet Governance eXchange (gigX) I did not think there was anything I could say related to gender activism. The last four days have reaffirmed the saying shared on the first day “if you are not at the table you will be on the menu”.

I never thought the internet to be knotty. That all I needed was my device of choice, an internet service provider and voila! Get my connection, click, click, click, open up a page, browse through it, close tab, open another, like an update, favorite a tweet, laugh at some memes and move on to the next tab.

Nothing is ever that easy.

In order to strengthen internet governance in Africa, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is organising a series of events to take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during September 2015. Follow them here.

In the opening session at this year’s Gender and Internet Governance eXchange (gigXAfrica), participants highlighted some key questions they had that they hoped would be answered during the exchange. One participant innocently asked: if the internet is free for all, how are women really marginalized in that space? This is my attempt at a calm response to this question that I am slowly realising…

As the representative of Take Back the Tech! Bangladesh I took the opportunity to give a presentation on the topic- ‘Consent, autonomy and agency: Online violence’ from a Bangladeshi perspective. Case studies of online violence in Bangladesh, government initiatives, campaigns of Take Back the Tech! Bangladesh have been discussed in the presentation.

In the Gender and Internet Governance Exchange (gigX) workshop last month participants from different countries in Asia were asked to arrange a series of words by the “ladder of hierarchy”. Despite our cultural differences, it seemed that we all agreed on one thing – whether married or unmarried - man is always on top.