FOREWORD
The digital sphere has become one of the most influential arenas for public debate, civic
participation, and democratic engagement. Across the Middle East and Northern Africa
(MENA) region, online platforms offer unprecedented opportunities for voices hitherto
excluded such as women, youth, and communities made marginalised, to express opinions
and demands, aims and aspirations, to mobilise and organise, as well as to create and
influence public discourse, and participate in public and political debates and activism.
However, due to increasing gender-based hate speech, harassment, and other forms of
technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV)1, this development, has highly
ambiguous consequences for gender justice, including the right to equal participation, the right
to freedom of expression2 and a life free from threats and violence.
TFGBV affects millions of people, and the impact of TFGBV on women, girls, LGBTIQ+
persons, and other specifically exposed groups is profound and multifaceted. In a study from
2021, 60 percent of women in the Arab states reported experiencing some form of online
harassment.3 Globally, different studies indicate that between 16-60 percent of women are
affected.4 Looking specifically at women human rights defenders, activists, journalists and
media workers, the number is as high as 70 percent.5 Perpetrators are often associated with
anti-gender and anti-feminist individuals or groups, but can also be state agents or other users
of ICT.
This is why International Media Support (IMS), Jordan Open Source Association (JOSA),
KVINFO and Tadwein set out to create an AI-powered tool for gendered hate speech detection
in 2025, focusing on the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. The project has included collecting
experiences from a pilot project in Jordan, a robust annotation process, focus group
discussions with experts, training of trainers and many more elements, in order to produce an
AI-model with high precision of detection and intuitive useability. The model includes features
facilitating use for a range of tech savvy to non-tech interested activists, researchers,
journalists and organisations.
This publication includes some of our experiences and reflections.
1 In this project, and as organisations, we lean on UNDP’s definition of TFGBV. Please see chapter 2 for
the full definition.
2
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and
expression (2021) Gender justice and freedom of expression. UN General Assembly, A/76/258 A/76/258:
Gender justice and freedom of expression - Report of Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection
of freedom of opinion and expression | OHCHR
3 UN Women, 2021, Violence against women in the online space: insights from a multi-country study in
the Arab States https://arabstates.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/11/violence-againstwomen-in-the-online-space#view
4 United Nations, Report of the General Secretary, 2024, Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of
violence against women and girls: technology-facilitated violence against women and girls a-79-500-sgreport-ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-2024-en.pdf
5 Posetti, J. et. al, 2025, Tipping point: The chilling escalation of online violence against women in the
public sphere, UN Women, tipping-point-the-chilling-escalation-of-violence-against-women-in-the-publicsphere-in-the-age-of-ai-en.pdf
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