Young Saudi Women’s Perceptions and Experiences of Cyberbullying on Twitter

Abstract

This study investigates how young Saudi women understand, experience and respond to cyberbullying on Twitter, within the intersecting structures of gender, religion and culture in a conservative society undergoing rapid social transformation. While cyberbullying against women has received increasing scholarly attention globally, limited research has explored how it manifests, is understood and navigated by women in Saudi Arabia. To address this gap, the study adopts a feminist qualitative approach grounded in poststructuralist and intersectional feminism. In support of this key feminist framework, I borrow concepts from Bourdieu’s sociology, particularly habitus and symbolic violence, to enrich the sociocultural analysis without positioning them as a primary theoretical lens. Data were generated through telephone-based semi-structured interviews with 30 young Saudi women who are Twitter users. The scroll-back method was integrated during interviews, enabling participants to select and reflect on specific tweets—whether directed at them or others as a participatory tool that centers women’s voices and interpretive agency. Findings reveal that participants conceptualise cyberbullying not merely as an instance of harm, but as part of a broader system of gendered control that governs women’s digital visibility and regulates behavior through mechanisms of moral and discipline. Women reported being targeted for their appearance, speech, opinions on gender roles and perceived challenges to cultural or religious norms. The impacts ranged from anxiety, self-censorship and digital withdrawal to social isolation. However, participants also demonstrated forms of contextual agency by managing digital interactions, negotiating cultural expectations and building solidarity with other women online. These responses reflect subtle, locally embedded strategies of resistance that challenge dominant frames without necessarily relying on overt or Western-liberal expressions of empowerment. Through its feminist design and culturally grounded methodology, the study provides an in-depth and context-sensitive understanding of cyberbullying against Saudi women on Twitter.