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Feminisms in the Middle East with the AI

Tory Grewar

In an age increasingly defined by technology — its uses, abuses, and biases — I have elected to engage a case study of orientalist biases as they relate to women’s movements and feminism in the Middle Eastern context. Using ChatGPT for textual analysis and deepai for the visual media representation accompanying this piece, I argue that although the responses and information generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs such as ChatGPT appear to privilege nuanced and tolerant perspectives, AI remains imbued with orientalist biases and Western colonial logics.


To begin, I asked the AI to define feminism in order to establish basic definitions from which to centre my questioning. ChatGPT defined feminism as an activist framework which advocates for the equality of all genders and the dismantling of diverse systems of oppression, including classism, racism, ablism, and homophobia. The AI thus provided an intersectional definition of feminism which serves as context to ground my subsequent question. In the North American context from which I write and in which I am most familiar, historically and presently, racialized women have rejected and even rebuked the name of feminism because of the white, middle class sensibilities which had/s informed much of mainstream feminist discourse. Fleischmann notes that, similarly, actors in Middle Eastern women’s movements do not and have not always considered themselves to be feminists or aligned themselves or their objectives with feminist movements. I resolved to ask ChatGPT, "why do some Middle Eastern women’s movement activists not consider themselves to be feminists” to probe the extent to which the AI would accept the homogenization of “Middle Eastern women” and valorize a non-critical and vaguely defined “feminism” as a universal framework for social justice. The AI’s response was fairly nuanced in that it urged “sensitivity to diverse perspectives” in this discussion, however it did not acknowledge the diversity of peoples who comprise the Middle East nor de-homogenize “Middle Eastern activists” as a demographic bloc. ChatGPT thus reflects Fleichmann’s problematization of the Western impulse to regard the Middle East, and particularly its women, as a homogenous, undifferentiated, and foreign entity (90).


Enumerating “potential factors” as to why some Middle Eastern women’s movement activists might not consider themselves “feminists” in their movements, the AI identified several points compatible with histories of women’s movements in the Middle East as presented by scholars Fleichmann and Lughod. To begin, ChatGPT noted that feminism, considered a western concept, can be received as an extension of colonialism. The AI noted that activists might favour alternative frameworks which target other oppressions including class and colonialism, which is deeply intertwined with gender justice, as a more relevant approach to their activisms. Indeed, many women’s movements throughout the Middle East have not centred upon women’s rights exclusively, but more relevantly upon a broader objective of liberating their countries from Western colonialism (Fleichmann, 92). Colonialism has been understood as a factor exacerbating existing gender related inequities and processes of decolonization is a more wholistic approach to social and gender justice (Fleichmann, 92). Protecting the sovereignty of their lands, cultures, and families, women’s very participation in decolonial activism and political organizing transforms and challenges and serves to usher in new, more egalitarian norms (Fleichmann, 92).


Other factors suggested by the AI as to why some Middle Eastern womens’ movement activists spurn the label “feminist” were quite blatantly orientalist. For example, the AI noted that feminism is “misunderstood” in Middle Eastern contexts. Here the AI others Middle Eastern activists, arguing that they do not understand feminism, the implication being that if they did understand feminism, then they would embrace it. The underlying attitude of paternalism in this response is deeply colonial and reveals subtle western logics inherent in the AI’s programming. As well, the AI suggested that these activists might fear being stigmatized or outcasted by their communities, reinforcing the notion that un-freedom and intolerance dominate the Middle East broadly. While certainly un-freedoms and intolerance exists in certain contexts, temporalities, and geographies, the AI’s lack of specificity construes the Middle East as a homogenized, leaning into colonial assumptions. Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT named religious texts, beliefs, and authorities as other reasons why activists reject feminism. Abu-Lughod argues that the Western conception of homogenization of gender relations in the Middle East and its inextricable link to a homogenized Islam, Middle Eastern women’s activism is is inherently impeded by virtue of its subjectivity (Abu-Lughod, 5). Western, or “white” feminism is construed as secular and “logically” philosophical — a framework from which homogeneous Middle Eastern women should learn and act from. The AI affirms this western logic, framing Middle Eastern women’s adoption or rejection of feminism as result of religious constraint, rather than the fundamental problems with the ways that mainstream feminism often functions as an extension of colonialism. For instance, I am reminded of white feminist preoccupation with the oppression of the veil. The idea that the veil is inherent oppression is driven by colonial logics — for many, the veil is a deeply embodied and visible resistance to Westernization (Yegenoglu, 40). And while it may not be born from fetishization, Western and particularly white feminism centres the colonial logics of bringing civility, modernization, and secularism —“freedom” — to “Middle Eastern Women”. Deeply political and tied up with unique national contexts, Middle Eastern women’s conceptions of feminism is necessarily different from each other as well as the feminisms of the West.


With this analysis in view, I wonder what are the futures for an intersectional, anti-colonial feminism and importantly, intersectional, anti-colonial, feminist-informed Artificial Intelligence. Marzia Lazreg argues that to this end, feminism must be transformed into feminisms — a “pluralistic, heterogeneous set of practices with a long, rich history worldwide.” (Fleichmann, 91). To create the accompanying artwork for this short essay, I asked deepai, an AI art generator, to create a visual representation of abstract art representing a global feminist collective. The vibrancy of the colours represent the vibrancy and uniqueness of activists worldwide, and the merging and inter-wovenness of their limbs represents hope for wide and lasting community and solidarities. Perhaps to build an international and anti-colonial feminist coalition, with its heavy history and connotations, it must become implicit that feminism means different things to different feminists.






About the image: Created by Deepai, 2024, “Abstract art representing a global feminist collective”



Works Cited


"ChatGPT." OpenAI. Feb 8, 2024. Web. <https://chat.openai.com/share/7b1584d7-fb44-416e- b3dc-22a0e109f35e>.


Fleischmann, Ellen. "The Other “Awakening”: The Emergence of Women’s Movements in the Modern Middle East, 1900–1940." Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East. 1st ed. United States: Routledge, 1999. 89-139. Print.

Abu-Lughod, Lila. "INTRODUCTION: Feminist Longings and Postcolonial Conditions." United States: Princeton University Press, 1998. 3-32. Web.

Yegenoglu, Meyda. "Veiled Fantasies: Cultural and Sexual Difference in the Discourse of Orientalism." Cambridge University Press, 1998. 39-67. Web.

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