Middle East

Ikhtyar (Arabic for choice) is an invitation to an open space for people interested in discussing gender issues, and in documenting/developing a gender knowledge base in Arabic. GenderIT showcases their recent research on online harassment and violence, the specific forms it takes in the region and language and their reflections on the research process.

Shadi Amin, an Iranian queer feminist and writer, became the victim of an online defamation campaign that left her with no recourse. The allegations of rape, abuse, bullying and money laundering wrecked Amin's life and in this interview with Shreya Ila Anasuya, Amin describes the ways in which the attack took place and what happened after.

This report on Mapping Digital Landscapes of Trans Activism in Central Asia and Eastern Europe provides a regional overview of digital organizing by trans activists in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, emphasizing shared patterns of digital usage, barriers to free and safe use of the internet, and resistance strategies to homo/transphobic-motivated censorship, surveillance, and online attacks…

A collective of human rights and civil society organizations publish a statement urging tech companies to immediately take strict measures to protect Palestinians from harm as disinformation and hate speech rise on their platforms in light of the escalating events in the region.

Habash from Egypt explores the relationship between feminism and blockchain technologies in a curious and critical review of possibilities emergent in DAOs and DisCos. They accompany us through several iterations and thought experiments on political organisation and theory in the realms of web3.

Journalist, Yara el Murr, from Lebanon presents a case study of kotobli, a book discovery platform that counters colonial algorithms used in searching for books about the SWANA region. She details how Big Tech favours publishers and authors from the Global North and presents the challenges and opportunities of working with local publishers and authors to change this.

Open-source advocate from Jordan, Raya Sharbain, makes the case for digital self-defence to support sexual rights and reproductive justice movements amidst growing crackdowns and threats. She elaborates on use of secure and protective technologies to share and access information critical to feminist movements.

AI expert, Nour Naim from Gaza, details the particular challenges of gender and racial bias in algorithms and datasets. In her piece, she presents an overview of important and emerging trends in the movement for trustworthy AI, as well as activist responses to these inequalities.

Tunisian researcher, Afef Abrougui, writes about the perils of AI-enhanced technologies deployed by authoritarian regimes in the region towards increased surveillance and predictive policing. She raises important questions about the readiness of civil society in the MENA to respond to these dangers and what is needed to preserve privacy and human rights in the coming…

In this article, Nadz Moawad invites you to use this AI hype to think of its economic undercurrent, surveillance capitalism, as equally urgent. Thinking about AI needs futurology, but thinking about surveillance economies requires history. They make the argument that radical movements, feminists especially, have been captured by this new economy and that a migration…