AI tools fuel surge in digital attacks on Middle East women
UN data shows 68 percent of regional women face tech-based violence, while new AI features make harassment cheaper and faster.
By Tomas Gonzalez ·
A recent United Nations Population Fund briefing confirms that artificial intelligence is accelerating the rate of digital harassment against women in the Middle East. The report details how AI tools are being used to create targeted disinformation and non-consensual imagery. This technological shift has made abuse easier to produce and harder to track for female public figures and activists.
Yaman Amer, a Syrian activist working on women's rights, receives hundreds of critical comments for her online work. She told Deutsche Welle that while the volume is overwhelming, a small percentage of the messages are so vulgar or threatening that they cause humiliation. Iraqi journalist Kholoud al-Ameri described a similar pattern where men contact female professionals under the pretense of being readers. She noted that many women simply block these accounts due to the frequency of such interactions.
The scale of the issue is documented in recent research. UN Women data indicates that 68 percent of women in the Middle East have dealt with technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Almost all have witnessed it. A 2025 study found that 49 percent of women using the internet in the region do not feel safe from online harassment. This figure rises to nearly 70 percent for women who are publicly visible, including politicians, journalists, and activists.
Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, an analyst at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, explained that AI has democratized the production of harmful content. It is now easier to create non-consensual imagery at scale. This shift targets regular people rather than just celebrities. An example of this trend emerged in early 2026 involving Grok, an AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk's company SpaceXAI. The tool gained the ability to alter photographs to depict fully dressed subjects as nearly naked. Although the scandal led to service restrictions, Venkataramakrishnan pointed out that safeguards across different AI models remain inconsistent.
The consequences of this digital abuse often spill over into the physical world. A World Bank briefing from June noted that norms regarding honor and family reputation can turn online attacks into real-world penalties. Legal protections remain insufficient in many countries. While some Middle Eastern nations have cybercrime laws, few specifically address gender-based online violence or have been updated to account for AI-related abuse. A UN Women survey found that 23 percent of women were blamed for the violence, and 12 percent faced physical punishment from their families.
Reporting the abuse is a hurdle for many victims. Studies suggest that only about 7 percent of women who experience technology-facilitated violence report it to law enforcement. Many cite concerns about having to present sexualized images or answer personal questions in front of strangers. In response to the pressure, around a quarter of affected women become more careful about their online posts, and 20 percent have deleted their accounts or left social media entirely.
A policy paper from the Syrian Women's Political Movement, published in May, outlined the severity of the issue based on focus groups with 120 women across the country. The majority agreed that digital abuse is being used to silence them. Younger activists reported that personal photos were being stolen and used against them. The organization argued for a law that would criminalize digital violence, describing smear campaigns targeting women's honor as punitive measures against those who express critical political opinions.
