“Only you can save my life” Saudi women and public protest on Twitter A Critical Discourse Analysis of emergency calls for protection or protest and the users’ responses in return.

Abstract: Since the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, Twitter has proven to be a useful mobilization tool for citizens within the relatively closed societies of the Arab world. Twitter affirms that unheard voices can now be heard and the claims on social and political practices are being exposed to public discussion. Within this debate, women’s right’s issues have floated to the surface. In societies like Saudi Arabia, a culture of modesty and conservatism exists, and the implication of male guardianship law restricts the ways in which women can participate in the public sphere. Twitter has provided a medium for challenging this culture. Here, the contradictions inherent in restrictions on Saudi women are being renegotiated, and there is a new landscape of social activism in the kingdom. This thesis sheds some light on these issues by studying tweets created by one online protester, Rahaf Mohammed Al-Qunun, as a case study. Her use of Twitter during the whole experience of fleeing from her family stimulated many responses from the Twitter community, and some users helped to facilitate her escape. Focusing on a selection of Al-Qanun’s tweets and responses to them by Twitter users, this thesis uses quantitative Content Analyses to address the large data sets, in combination with Critical Discourse Analysis. This is complemented by the feminist scholarship and theorization on publicness and privateness for Middle Eastern women.