Paper short abstract:

Women in Zanzibar use communication technologies to express themselves as part of daily interaction. This paper investigates the controversies between different generations about mobile phone and internet use, the fear of westernization and the ways technologies are embedded in this Islamic Swahili society.

Paper long abstract:

Public piety and Islamic awareness are rising in the islands of Zanzibar on the east coast of Tanzania. Internet and mobile phones are both used to consolidate social networks and to express religiosity. This paper investigates ideas about the relations between technology, Islam and the way women express religiosity and perform social relationships in daily life, both online and off. Even though mobile phones and social networking sites are used to express religiosity, the use of communication technologies are accompanied by feelings of fear of modernization and westernization. The older generation of women in particular claims that the youth are becoming westernized and their religious and cultural values are in decline. Young women find ways to negotiate the cultural and religious expectations of the society they are part of and embed communication technologies within their daily social lives and creating a more flexible space to express their identities.