{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T23:22:15Z","timestamp":1777936935720,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,1]],"date-time":"2019-05-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1556668800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This study examines the online communicative dynamics between women and men during the Saudi women\u2019s rights campaign to end male guardianship, which unfolded on Twitter. We analysed 2.7 million tweets with the #EndMaleGuardianship hashtag over a 7-month period quantitatively and 150,245 of these qualitatively to examine the extent to which Twitter shapes and facilitates cross-gender communication, and how this helped engender new spaces for expression of dissent. Our study shows that Twitter provided shared online communicative spaces that had several characteristics commonly associated with public sphere(s). There is also evidence that using these alternatives spaces, women transcended to an extent the gender segregation that exists in traditional public discourses and spaces of Saudi society. The anonymity of Twitter offered women a safe place to deliberate their concerns about male guardianship. We suggest that these deliberations created a counterpublic sphere of sorts, which helped Saudi women legitimise the #EndMaleGuardianship campaign.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444818821376","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,10]],"date-time":"2019-05-10T00:36:40Z","timestamp":1557448600000},"page":"1121-1140","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["#EndMaleGuardianship: Women\u2019s rights, social media and the Arab public sphere"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"21","author":[{"given":"Einar","family":"Thorsen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Bournemouth University, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chindu","family":"Sreedharan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bournemouth University, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Alarabiya (2017) \u2018\u0627\u0644\u0639\u0645\u0644\u2019 \u062a\u062a\u0648\u0627\u0635\u0644 \u0645\u0639 \u0623\u0645 \u0627\u0644\u0637\u0641\u0644\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0639\u0646\u0641\u0629 \u0644\u062a\u062e\u0644\u064a\u0635\u0647\u0627 \u0645\u0646 \u0623\u0628\u064a\u0647\u0627. Available at: https:\/\/www.alarabiya.net\/ar\/saudi-today\/2017\/01\/11\/-\u0627\u0644\u0639\u0645\u0644-\u062a\u062a\u0648\u0627\u0635\u0644-\u0645\u0639-\u0648\u0627\u0644\u062f\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0637\u0641\u0644\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0645\u0639\u0646\u0641\u0629-\u0644\u062a\u062e\u0644\u064a\u0635\u0647\u0627-\u0645\u0646-\u0648\u0627\u0644\u062f\u0647\u0627.html (accessed 20 September 2017)."},{"issue":"2","key":"bibr2-1461444818821376","first-page":"161","volume":"3","author":"Aljabre AA","year":"2013","journal-title":"ARPN Journal of Science and Technology"},{"key":"bibr3-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Aljasir SA (2015) An investigation of Facebook usage by university students in Saudi Arabia. Available at: https:\/\/curve.coventry.ac.uk\/open\/file\/088175cb-851b-4fc3-ba41-dd61591f04d9\/1\/Aljasir%202015.pdf"},{"key":"bibr4-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.techsoc.2011.03.005"},{"key":"bibr5-1461444818821376","volume-title":"The Relevance of Gatekeeping in the Process of Contemporary News Creation and Circulation in Saudi Arabia","author":"Almaghlooth A","year":"2013"},{"key":"bibr6-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Al Nahedh M, Al Sheikh H (2018)\n                      A Voice Unsilenced: Saudi Women Advocating Their Rights\n                      , 1990-2017. United States of America: Center for Women\u2019s Global Leadership."},{"key":"bibr7-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1083-6101.2006.00327.x"},{"key":"bibr8-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/j.1681-4835.2016.tb00549.x"},{"key":"bibr9-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Al-Saggaf Y, Simmons P (2014) Social media in Saudi Arabia: exploring its use during two natural disasters. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 95: 3\u201315. Available at: http:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S0040162514002522","DOI":"10.1016\/j.techfore.2014.08.013"},{"key":"bibr10-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Bajnaid A (2016) A Study of Online Impression, Mate Preferences and Courtship Script Among Saudi Users of Matrimonial Websites. Leicester. Available at: http:\/\/hdl.handle.net\/2381\/37171"},{"key":"bibr11-1461444818821376","unstructured":"BBC (2016) Saudi women file petition to end male guardianship system. Available at: https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-middle-east-37469860"},{"key":"bibr12-1461444818821376","unstructured":"BBC Trending (2016) Saudis on social: faith, freedom and fun. Available at: http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/blogs-trending-35664637 (accessed 28 June 2016)."},{"key":"bibr13-1461444818821376","volume-title":"Situating the Self\u202f: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics","author":"Benhabib S","year":"1992"},{"key":"bibr14-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Burrows T (2016) Saudi Arabian woman is ARRESTED by morality police and now faces being LASHED for not wearing hijab (online). Daily Mail\/Mail Online. Available at: http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-4025250\/Woman-received-death-threats-vowing-without-hijab-Saudi-Arabia-ARRESTED-morality-police-faces-LASHED.html (accessed 15 September 2017)."},{"issue":"1","key":"bibr15-1461444818821376","first-page":"1","volume":"21","author":"Charles C","year":"1991","journal-title":"Michigan Journal of Race & Law"},{"key":"bibr16-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Dennis E, Martin J, Wood R (2016) Media Use in the Middle East: An Six-Nation Survey. Qatar: Northwestern University. Available at: www.mideastmedia.org\/survey\/2016"},{"key":"bibr17-1461444818821376","volume-title":"Nations, Publics, and Political Cultures: Placing Habermas in the Nineteenth Century","author":"Eley G","year":"1992"},{"key":"bibr18-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Faris R, Noman H (2015) Openness and restraint structure, discourse, and contention in Saudi Twitter. Available at: https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2700944","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.2700944"},{"issue":"25","key":"bibr19-1461444818821376","first-page":"109","volume":"26","author":"Fraser N","year":"1990","journal-title":"Social Text"},{"key":"bibr20-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Freedom House (2017) Freedom on the net (Saudi Arabia 2017). Available at: https:\/\/freedomhouse.org\/report\/freedom-net\/2017\/saudi-arabia"},{"key":"bibr21-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.31269\/triplec.v12i1.552"},{"key":"bibr22-1461444818821376","volume-title":"The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society","author":"Habermas J","year":"1989"},{"key":"bibr23-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Human Rights Watch (2016) Saudi Arabia. Available at: https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/world-report\/2016\/country-chapters\/saudi-arabia"},{"key":"bibr24-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780198752035.001.0001","volume-title":"Feminism, the public and the private","author":"Lanes J","year":"1998"},{"key":"bibr25-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/17544750.2015.1088874"},{"key":"bibr26-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0032329202250170"},{"key":"bibr27-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lynch M (2007) Blogging the New Arab public. Arab Media & Society. Available at: https:\/\/www.arabmediasociety.com\/blogging-the-new-arab-public\/","DOI":"10.70090\/ML07BNAP"},{"key":"bibr28-1461444818821376","first-page":"1","volume":"8","author":"Martin CE","year":"2012","journal-title":"New Feminist Solutions"},{"issue":"3","key":"bibr29-1461444818821376","first-page":"1","volume":"1","author":"Mourtada R","year":"2011","journal-title":"Arab Social Media Report"},{"key":"bibr30-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Poor N (2005) Mechanisms of an online public sphere: the website Slashdot. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10(2). Available at: https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00241.x","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00241.x"},{"key":"bibr31-1461444818821376","volume-title":"Unveiling the Revolutionaries: Cyberactivism and the Role of Women in the Arab Uprisings","author":"Radsch CC","year":"2012"},{"key":"bibr32-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/cons.12033"},{"key":"bibr33-1461444818821376","volume-title":"The Differential Impact of Women\u2019s Participation in the Arab Spring","author":"Sasha J","year":"2013"},{"key":"bibr34-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology (2007) Anti-Cyber Crime Law. Saudi Arabia: Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers. Available at: https:\/\/www.mcit.gov.sa\/sites\/default\/files\/anti_cyber_crime_law_en_0.pdf."},{"key":"bibr35-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Stephan R (2013) Cyberfeminism and Its Political Implications for Women in the Arab World. E-International Relations. Available at: http:\/\/www.e-ir.info\/about\/ (accessed 25 November 2015)."},{"key":"bibr36-1461444818821376","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444817712085"},{"key":"bibr37-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Twitter (2018) Twitter transparency report. Available at: https:\/\/transparency.twitter.com\/en\/countries\/sa.html"},{"key":"bibr38-1461444818821376","unstructured":"Worth RF (2012) Twitter gives Saudi Arabia a revolution of its own. The New York Times, 12 October. Available at: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/10\/21\/world\/middleeast\/twitter-gives-saudi-arabia-a-revolution-of-its-own.html"}],"container-title":["New Media &amp; Society"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1461444818821376","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/1461444818821376","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1461444818821376","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T03:47:57Z","timestamp":1777693677000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1461444818821376"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,5]]},"references-count":38,"journal-issue":{"issue":"5","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,5]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/1461444818821376"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1461444818821376","relation":{},"ISSN":["1461-4448","1461-7315"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1461-4448","type":"print"},{"value":"1461-7315","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,5]]}}}