“Students take approximately two practical computer lessons in universities per year, and their time on the keyboard is, at most, sixty or ninety seconds...”. “Shame” has caused “digital illiteracy” to prevail and made women unsuccessful in the labour market due to their poor skills, and patriarchy, which is an obstacle to the development of women in Iraq.

After finishing my engineering studies, I started my job search and applied for a position. Many new graduates, and others who graduated years ago, attended the interview. The first test evaluated English and digital skills (Computer and Microsoft Office skills), which have become essential in the job market.

I later realised that most female engineers who applied did not pass the test as they did not have proper Word and Excel skills besides not speaking good English, while the number of men rejected for the same reasons was much less.

Most Iraqi women find it difficult to get a job or develop their career due to their digital and information illiteracy, as well as other social, political and institutional factors perpetuating gender discrimination. These obstacles prevent them from providing a decent life and secure financial and mental stability for themselves and their children.

Starting from school

There is difficulty in understanding digital illiteracy in Iraq, especially considering the number of social media users in the country, which reached about twenty-eight million, that is, approximately seventy per cent of the population as of 2022. However, digital illiteracy amounts to about sixty per cent of youth, making up most of Iraqi society.

UNESCO defines digital illiteracy as “the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate and create information safely and appropriately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship”. Digital literacy requires “the functionally necessary skills to use the internet and digital technology, and to do so safely using reliable information and protected data”. This requires more than using the internet or having a smartphone or a computer.

It is not strange that digital illiteracy is widespread among young Iraqis, considering that computer education, a compulsory subject in the Iraqi school curriculum, is usually theoretical and taught without computers.

Only a few secondary schools have barely sufficient computers for all students. Moreover, these computers are not connected to the internet because of the prevailing belief that the internet will corrupt girls. Despite being included in the prescribed lessons, some schools do not teach it at all because most female teachers are not interested in computer skills or teaching them, which indicates their digital and information illiteracy as well.

The fact that computer lessons are not taken seriously in schools is experienced by all of us in different governorates and environments. Even the Ministry of Education is aware of this and urges its teaching staff to teach computer skills, as stated in a letter to schools’ headmasters in 2021.

Postgraduates with weak digital skills

Universities have the same issue. Students and teachers agree that most faculties only teach their specialised courses without developing digital, research, and information skills that benefit students after graduation.

Ahmad Al-Dhufiri, a professor at Samarra University, estimated that students take approximately two practical computer lessons in universities per year, and their time on the keyboard is, at most, sixty or ninety seconds. This is because “computer labs are small and do not accommodate all students. They contain twenty devices, of which at least five or six are broken”. Thus, dozens of students wait for their turn to have some practical experience on the computer.

However, in these few minutes, students learn the basics, such as copying and pasting files and changing the desktop background. “As for Microsoft Office and other skills, many professors and students believe they are for computer scientists, despite being simple and essential for whoever deals with modern technologies”, Al-Dhufiri said.

To pass the computer course, students buy a fascicle from the university library that contains computer basics and terminology, making the whole learning process theoretical and rudimentary.

Sama Hassanein, a pharmacy graduate, had an even worse experience. “There were no computers and no computer skills lecturer. The university addressed this issue by inviting a lecturer from another faculty to teach us voluntarily”. “He taught us nothing. He gave us a set of notes which we memorised by heart and then took the final written exam”, Hassanein said.

The practical exam was full of obstacles, “One of the students brought a laptop, and we ran the exam on it sequentially, (…) the keyboard was broken, and we could not type the text we were meant to print on Word, we could barely hit the keys”.

Many students go to offices around universities to print their assigned reports and research. Some even pay these offices to do the entire university assignment, not just print or upload it. This means that many higher education graduates of universities, attaining a master’s or PhD do not have computer or digital technology skills, not even the minimum according to Samar Ali, who is pursuing a PhD in Communication Engineering. This also applies to those who specialise in computer science, especially women.

Ali believes that part of the digital illiteracy problem among women, particularly, is the prevailing social belief which convinces them that digital technologies are related to the domain of men’s work. Therefore, female students and graduates are rarely passionate about digital and information culture due to the prohibitive conventions experienced by them from childhood, which continues as they grow up because they rarely receive any related guidance and encouragement, never mind dealing with the rampant digital and information illiteracy in society.

Immorality and digital illiteracy among women

Male social media users in Iraq make up 66.6 per cent, while female users make up only 33.4 per cent! This reflects a digital gap in purposeful digital use between males and females.

“It is not unusual for us women, who grew up, live, and work in Iraqi society, that men surpass women in using computers and digital devices”, said Sama, who is now a pharmacist. “This is mainly because girls are not as familiar with computers as boys, since boys have used them since childhood and could access the internet freely compared to girls”.

The situation has changed today, as many women have greater access to the internet through smartphones. “However, most of them only use the internet for social media, and their greatest concern is being careful not to get involved in what would harm them, prevent them from pursuing their studies, or make them a victim of an honour killing”, Sama added.

Yasmine, a twenty-nine-year-old feminist with a master’s degree in Gender Studies, went through a personal experience in her household that would later be her measure for understanding digital illiteracy among women in Iraq.

When Yasmine’s father bought a computer for their home, her elder brother thought himself in charge of it, “as if the device was in his name. He would shout at me whenever I tried to touch the mouse”. By watching her brother use the computer, however, she learned its basics. “He used to kick me out, but I learned. I would sneak in after he left the house and turn the device on. I would search, read, and watch YouTube”.

Therefore, Yasmine believes it is challenging to expect women to have digital and information literacy because of traditional societal norms. “How can this not be the case when they always hear things like ‘it is inappropriate to have a computer, the internet, or a mobile phone’, or ‘what are you going to do with it?’, or ‘when you get married’, or ‘you are still young’. Thus, I think ‘shame’ conditions them, and being mocked for their desire to learn and experiment at a young age has killed their passion”.

Yasmine attributes the problem to society’s “gender roles”. “Women spend their time developing their skills as housewives or caregivers. If they have some time left, they spend it on social media or watching a TV series”, she said.

Misogyny and the internet

The experiences of Sama and Yasmine are similar to many Iraqi women, as the misogynistic patriarchal system imposes restrictions on their internet use and their digital knowledge according to moral and religious concepts and tribal traditions, which link the internet to immorality and disgrace, and view it as a threat to the traditional family system, its values and norms. Therefore, it is seen as unsafe for women exclusively.

Certainly, digital technology has risks for women, such as online harassment, bullying, online stalking, unwanted sexual messages, and the sharing of non-consensual intimate images, in addition to abuse and sexual exploitation of children and a lack of awareness regarding data security and privacy protection.

However, online abuse and harassment of women in Iraq will only consolidate the digital gap between men and women. Women do not know who to turn to when they face harassment or online blackmail, as their families do not educate or teach them how to stay safe or support them but deny them digital access, blame, and punish them with what could even amount to death in the name of “honour”.

Digital literacy is necessary for women’s independence

Recently, a colleague called me to ask how to add a fourth column to a three-column table on Word. I suggested that she could find out on Google and Youtube, the most important and easiest ways for e-education available for everyone today. My colleague replied that she does not know how to use the computer or search the internet for information, meaning she does not know how to learn.

Many Iraqi female graduates do not know the basics needed for any job, such as sending an email, creating and filling out an online form such as Google Forms, or filling out an online questionnaire. Statistics show that 96 out of 100 women do not know how to use computers or electronic devices, such as printers, smartphones, or software applications.

Therefore, digital illiteracy and the lack of electronic skills contribute to excluding women from the labour market, in addition to other political and social factors that have resulted in the percentage of economically inactive women reaching eighty-seven per cent and seventy-eight for Iraqi women who are housewives, according to the Central Statistical Bureau’s data in 2019.

“When an Iraqi woman has digital and information literacy, she would become more productive and focused on her profession, as she would benefit from the internet and computers in her work. She would be able to work online, earn, and be independent. Women would be able to read job advertisements and apply for them”, says Mariam, who is pursuing a master’s degree in architecture.

This urge to digitally empower women was the focus of the United Nations theme on March 8 – International Women’s Day, this year, Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality, as “digital technology is opening new doors for the global empowerment of women, girls and other marginalised groups. From gender-responsive digital learning to tech-facilitated sexual and reproductive healthcare, the digital age represents an unprecedented opportunity to eliminate all forms of disparity and inequality”.

Consequently, Iraqi women with digital access and literacy can educate themselves and motivate their creativity, evaluate news, advertisements, speeches, political, health, and environmental campaigns, analyse dialogues and debates, and fight for their rights. They can participate in digital campaigns to protest against crimes against women, domestic violence, and child marriage, advancing their awareness and participation in defending their rights. “Many women did not realise that what they went through in childhood is considered harassment until they read about it online”, Mariam adds.

Therefore, without digital and information literacy, Iraqi women will remain restricted in expressing their abilities and opinions, deprived of mental and financial independence, and from shaping their personalities at home and within society.

*Speakers in the report preferred not to give their full names, and some did not give their first name.