Sportswomen’s Use of Social Media in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena)

Social media creates unique opportunities for sportswomen to create a self-brand through sharing aspects of their lives online. Insofar, the study of this phenomenon has been limited to the context of the Western world. This chapter presents the findings from a digital ethnography of the social media accounts of sportswomen from Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as interviews with these women. In contrast to research findings that show Western sportswomen using social media for self-branding and offering intimate details about their lifestyles, our findings shows that Middle Eastern sportswomen carefully consider what they share and how they share with their audiences, using different strategies to safely and effectively navigate the digital terrain, with the familial and cultural restraints playing a key role in their decision-making processes.