ICTs for Afghan women's empowerment in the pre- and new-Taliban era: Roles of gender, education, and crises

Abstract

In this paper, we explore women's use of ICTs in urban Afghanistan in the period between 2015 and 2022 to examine the changing gender dynamics of ICT access and usage in the context of expanding opportunities for women's education and employment (2015–2020) and different forms of crises, including the COVID19 pandemic (2020–2021) and political takeover by the fundamentalist and violent Taliban regime (2021–2022). Drawing on feminist theorization of empowerment and using a mixed methods study of 817 questionnaires (2015) and observation data (2015–2022) allows us to make visible the contingent and unintended dynamics of the relationship between women's empowerment and ICTs, especially in conflict zones. These findings contribute to ongoing debates on gender, empowerment and ICTs by emphasizing the multifaceted nature of technology adoption and usage, the significance of education in overcoming barriers, and the evolving role of ICTs, especially for women, in the face of radical political changes and crises.