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Algeria has opened its first women-only Internet café to give room for women to surf the cyberspace. |
ALGIERS — Devout Algerians will now be able to strike the balance between their need for internet, a must-have in today's world, and doing that in a more friendly atmosphere through the country's first-ever woman-only café.
"Many devout women have been unable to make use of the Internet over the lack of women-only places," Radwan Latram, the owner of the new café, told IslamOnline.net.
Named "Al-Fatah", the internet café was opened last week in the Al-Wadi district of the capital Algiers.
"The aim is to meet the need of devout women in surfing the web for educational and other purposes."
Latram recalls how his niece used to send her younger brother to mixed internet cafes to find her school-related materials online.
"He used to come back loaded with papers on almost everything, except what she really wanted," he said.
"This is just one example of the problems faced by devout women who were uncomfortable with mixed internet cafes."
Nearly 2.4 of Algeria's 33.3 million population use internet, according to unofficial figures.
Internet cafes have mushroomed from only 100 in 2000 to more than 5,000 in 2008.
"Many internet cafes have become a symbol for moral corruption with many youths, especially the unemployed, logging on erotic sites," said Latram.
"This has forced many practicing youths to stay away from Internet cafes."
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