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ARAB COUNTRIES
source: www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358478&rel=true
www.hrinfo.net/en/
reports/net2004/all.shtml
www.dailytimes.com.pk/
default.asp?page=story_3-11-2002_pg5_18
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A growing number of young users spend time online messaging friends, surfing for news (most local media are government-censored) or chatting about everything from repressive politics to Islamic matters… - Youth between the ages of 13 and 35 represent 65% of the Arab population. Looking closely at the enabling environment for youth in the Arab region, we can conclude that there are many challenges to the role they could play in the context of information society;
- the Greater Middle East region, once the cradle of scientific discovery and learning, has largely failed to keep up with today’s knowledge-oriented world. The region’s growing knowledge gap and continuing brain drain challenge its development prospects. Arab countries’ output of books represent just 1.1% of the world total (with religious books constituting over 15% of this). Roughly 1/4 of all university graduates emigrate, and technology is largely imported(1);
- Internet use in the Arab Middle East is growing rapidly, but there is evidence that many countries in the region are increasing their crackdowns on what they consider to be dissident content. A study of 11 countries carried out by the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRINFO) – “The Internet In the Arab World: A New Space of Repression?” – finds many of the area’s estimated 14 million Internet users facing shutdown of websites and Internet cafes, and prosecution for a variety of crimes;
- moreover, starting from a few years ago, observers have noticed a growing religious trend in Arabic web pages: most of these websites come from the Arab Gulf area. Few who read statistics concerning Arabic content on the Internet fail to notice the high proportion of these Islamic web pages amongst the total. One estimate says that Islamic web pages comprise 65% of the total number of Arabic websites on the Internet. Though this estimation is exaggerated, it does indicate the exceedingly large number of web pages with Islamic content; (2)
- according to Madar Research Group, the number of Internet users in the Arab world will reach 25 million by the end of 2005. In 2004, the rate of internet usage among Arabs did not exceed 4% (one of the lowest rates in the world), while only 14 million Arabs owned PCs, and 39 million had a fixed phone line. TheUnited Arab Emirates (UAE) has the highest Internet penetration rate in the Arab world with 27.69% of the population having access to the Net. Bahrain has the second highest penetration rate in the region with 22.06%;
- public access is an important means for widening Internet access, especially where home access is limited. In most Arab countries approximately 29 % of users access the Internet at home. Most users, about 58.3%, go online at cybercafés or at work, about 43% For example, a majority of Internet users in Morocco access the Internet from cybercafés. In Jordan and Algeria, it is often cheaper to use a cybercafé than to access the Internet from home;
- in 2002, Saudi Arabia had the single largest Internet community among all Arab countries with 1.6 million Internet users. Egypt and the UAE followed with 1.5 million and 900,000 users respectively. By the end of 2005, Egypt will have the highest number of Internet users in the Arab region with 6.5 million Net users. Saudi Arabia will have the second highest number of Internet users in the Arab world with 4.48 million users, while Algeria will have 2.4 million;
- for the Internet to be more popular in the Arab world there needs to be more technological literacy In a recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Youth and Sport, 72.1% of young Tunisians (15-29) stated that they did not have exhaustive information on this medium. Only 9% of them use the Internet;
- very few women use the Internet, due to the lack of telecommunications infrastructures and the high cost of computer equipment and connections: 4% of Arab women access the Internet. This rate is 50% in the United States and 35% in Brazil. One factor that explains the situation is the high rate of illiteracy among women in the region;
- around 76% of Internet users in the UAE are male. Most Internet users in the UAE tend to be both young and highly educated: the average age of users is 27 and 59% of users are college graduates;
- according to information provided by the Arab Club for Media and Information Technologies, the number of Internet users in Jordan in 2002 was about 1/2 million people of whom half were female (which is an exception within Arab countries). Jordan is attempting to overcome its computer shortage through the governmental universities network project. This is part of a larger educational network project that aims to connect more than 1.5 million students by 2006 to a wider information and research network.
(1) Arab Human Development Report, 2002
(2) Translated Internet news. Accessed on 6 May 2004-05-17 - www.ameinfo.com/arabic/Detailed/20220.html.
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