To the chagrin of humanists, theocracies and patriarchal societies in too

many parts of the world enforce sexual oppression.  As we’ve all learned

in the last 20 years, especially with the phenomenal results of

microfinancing to women, the female half of the population is generally

critical to raising the entire cultural and economic hopes of a country.  This

is largely because of their focus on the children and their insistence on

food, education, and health before personal desires. So what happens

when the government doesn’t change but the options open to oppressed

women do?

 

Enter the cell phone; the hand sized device facilitating private and

instantaneous exchange of information and ideas.  A more potent cancer to

the logistics of oppression is difficult to imagine.

 

Because I was so involved myself with the use of technology in new areas

of communication, as an animator in Hollywood, I often tried to describe

the contradiction and tension inherent in the rapid changes in technology

and the many wars being fought, especially in the Islamic world, for control

of minds. But it wasn’t until I arrived in Indonesia a year ago to teach

English that I inadvertently happened upon the “picture worth a thousand

words:” Young women swaddled in hijab with their necks bent over cell

phones and their minds all over the world.

 

Head + Scarf * Hand + Phone = Hope