The Internet has been a tool of liberation for Arab women, with no gender issues to get in the way of learning. Mary Russell reports from a Forum on Arab Women and Education in Damascus where women talked of the determination and ingenuity sometimes needed to secure an education

It was not just the views but the dress code as well which underlined the diversity of the Arab world when participants at a Forum on Arab Women and Education met this month in Damascus. A few women were, but for their eyes, completely veiled.

Some wore only the hijab (the scarf that covers the hair). There were African-Arab women in colourful, gauzy gowns, matching scarves floating gracefully about their shoulders. And there were women in Western dress, their heads uncovered, their hair immaculately styled.

Veils and headscarves, however, were not uppermost in the minds of the delegates who, between them, represented 21 Arab countries - some of which are secular while others have Islam as their official religion. (Both Iraq and Syria are secular states.) What exercised the minds of most delegates was the old familiar question: how best to educate girls and how to cope with gender inequality.

A speech given by Abdullah Abdul Daim, professor of education at Damascus University, in which he underlined the importance of the mother in the early years, brought a sturdy response from Ragda Shrein, assistant professor in developmental psychology at the University of Amman.

"The responsibility of rearing children must be shared by the father," she said. "It's unfair to leave it all to the women, and Arab men must be encouraged to play their role in this. In any case, education isn't enough. Changes must come in our behaviour which is still traditional and stereotypical."

Chatting to her afterwards, I commented on her mild response to a point of view that women everywhere have had to contend with for decades. "Well," and she smiled diplomatically, "in our tradition, we have to respect older people, and so I had to agree with some of what Dr Daim said."

But it was access to the web that proved to be the subject of one of the most interesting contributions of the whole forum. Fatima Al- Balooshi, chair of Bahrain University's department of educational technology, spoke of what a liberating tool the Internet has proved to be for Muslim women.

In a culture where some men will not shake hands with a woman - physical contact with someone who is not a spouse is discouraged in more traditional circles - the difficulties facing a young female student wishing to attend university can be enormous.

"But with the Internet," said Dr Al-Balooshi, a woman in her 30s and a computer enthusiast, "my students can learn from any teacher: the computer has no gender. The obstacle of being a woman has gone. I have one female student who signs herself as a man. She is free to take on another identity, something she could never do with a teacher face to face.

"Though," she added, "the arrival of the computer has brought further challenges since girls now have to live both in a traditional and in a cyber society."

But Bahrain is an oil-rich country with a literacy rate of 88 per cent, and there were dissenting voices from less well-off Arab countries.

"We don't need computers," said Mintata Heded, secretary of state for women in Mauritania. "What we need is more and better preschool education, and we need specialist teachers for that age group."

The people of Mauritania - a largely agricultural-based economy - have a life expectancy of 51 years and a literacy rate of 41 per cent. These two Arab countries, for all their similarities, seemed very far apart.

Outside the ornate conference centre, a laser show streaked across the Damascene sky. Delegates chatted to each other on cellphones provided for the duration. On Arab Women's Day (February 1st) we returned to our five-star hotel rooms to find waiting for us gold-decked confections of chocolate and crystalised fruit, compliments of the management.

The following day, a sand storm blew up. The striped awning flapped in panic; hotel staff hurried to weight down the red carpet which led from the conference centre to the hotel lobby. Later, two local women in long peasant skirts and wide-brimmed hats had the task of manually collecting bits of paper blown about by the wind. Some things don't change.

But throughout the sessions, the loudest applause was reserved for the delegations from Iraq and the Palestinian Authority.

"Since 1948," said Lucia Jazzi, a Palestinian delegate, "education has been the tool we have used to combat the occupation. Our schools have continued in garages and shops, and the children have been taught by doctors and engineers. During the curfew, we get exam papers delivered on back roads by donkey. Children ask their mothers to give them onions, not sandwiches, for their lunch, to protect them from the effects of Israeli tear gas. It is normal for a young boy to attend the funeral of a comrade one day and sit an exam the next."

Another delegate told of how a teacher, observing that the Israeli soldiers usually allowed shepherds to pass through their checkpoints, acquired a couple of sheep which she drove through the checkpoint every day, depositing them in a friend's garden a few miles further on before going to her school for a day's work. Returning home, she reversed the procedure.

"Our education process continues," said the delegate, "because of the solidarity within our community."

In her hotel room, Dr Manan Youness Abdul er Razzak, head of the Iraqi Women's Union, shook her head when asked about the possibility of attack by Britain and the US. "Is that all you want to talk about?" she asked, clearly weary of answering the same questions, though she answered them anyway. "Iraqi women are trying to ensure every family has food and water to last six months. Many people do two jobs to survive - a doctor in the morning and a taxi-driver in the afternoon. It is our stand against US domination and European aggression.

"And you know," she told me, leaning forward to light another cigarette, "Americans are not a free people. There are many who are without health care and many who are homeless."

Did she think Saddam Hussein would continue as leader? "Inshallah [God willing\]," she said - and smiled.