Weaponizing Women’s Images in Misinformation Campaigns in 2025

Throughout 2025, Misbar debunked numerous claims and identified various forms of misinformation and disinformation. Gender dynamics were among the key factors influencing the creation and spread of misinformation during a year marked by multiple crises, conflicts, and controversial breaking news events.

Women’s images were extensively used to generate false or misleading claims, including AI-generated or manipulated images and videos, as well as recycled old visuals paired with inaccurate or deceptive narratives.

The phenomenon is not new. Women’s images have long been exploited in controversial contexts, particularly in tabloids and sensationalist journalism, where women were attacked, their privacy violated, or their images used in sensational ways to boost sales and attract audiences. Veteran journalists and media professionals have often referred to the pyramid of the three most attention-grabbing elements in media coverage: blood, sex, and money; some may add politics. But when a woman is placed at the center of this pyramid, the story will not only gain traction, it will go viral, often carrying harmful stereotypes, using women’s images to cause broader social damage.

Over the years, images of popular female leaders and public figures have frequently been used in tabloids, captured by paparazzi without consent, taken out of context, or repurposed to support allegations and misleading claims. One of the most widely popular examples may be the persistent use of photographs of Princess Diana in tabloids.

Women activists and feminists have also been repeatedly targeted by false claims and accusations throughout history. Misogynistic narratives and commentary tend to circulate widely during global breaking news events involving women. Restrictive cultural environments and authoritarian political regimes have further fueled the spread of such narratives, amplifying claims that target women more broadly. 

For instance, a wave of misinformation emerged amid discussions about women’s rights in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the northwestern city of Saqez, died in hospital after spending three days in a coma following her arrest by Iran’s morality police accusing her of not complying with the law requiring women to wear loose clothing and a hijab in public.

Throughout 2025, Misbar’s investigation team debunked multiple claims involving the misuse of women’s images across various contexts, including content generated or manipulated using artificial intelligence to support misleading narratives or accusations. Below, we highlight several examples of our work related to this phenomenon and, through interviews with scholars, explore how gender dynamics shape the creation and spread of misinformation, as well as some of the reasons and impacts on women.

Misogynistic Claims Target Female Police Officers After the Bondi Beach Attack

Several claims emerged following the Bondi Beach attack on December 14, 2025, when two gunmen opened fire from a small bridge near a car park on Campbell Parade, at the northern end of Bondi Beach, Australia, targeting a Hanukkah celebration and killing at least 15 people while injuring more than 40 others.

Misbar identified misogynistic commentary fueled by some of these circulating claims, including the widespread sharing of a photo showing two female police officers at the scene. The image was accompanied by claims alleging that the officers appeared “completely frozen” while the gunmen reportedly fired for up to 20 minutes without interruption.

Regardless of the authenticity of the image, the posts triggered a wave of misogynistic content and comments attacking female police officers more broadly. “Female and cop should never be used in the same sentence,” one social media user wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Claims Shared in Relation with the Israeli War on Gaza

Amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, several claims surfaced online. Social media users shared a video that purports to show a young pro-Palestinian woman being apprehended by Hamas in Gaza for not wearing a burqa. However, Misbar’s investigation found that the viral video is outdated and does not depict a Palestinian supporter being detained by Hamas.

Instead, the footage shows a 16-year-old German girl who joined ISIS after fleeing her home in 2016 and was found alive in Iraq in July 2017, according to the German government.

During the ceasefire, social media users widely circulated a clip claiming it showed a Palestinian woman in Gaza rebuilding her home after it was destroyed by Israeli occupying forces. However, Misbar found that the viral video was filmed in Turkey and dates back to November 27, 2024, approximately two months before the ceasefire took effect.

Earlier this year, social media users widely shared a video clip purporting to show a Palestinian woman defending her home against an Israeli bulldozer. However, Misbar’s investigation team traced the video back to December 2024, when an X user shared it on December 18 as footage of an Egyptian woman defending her home against a bulldozer.

Amid the ongoing war and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, another claim circulated online using a photo of a woman carrying children. Users alleged that it showed a mother from Gaza carrying her two daughters while fleeing to the southern Gaza Strip. However, Misbar’s team investigated the viral image and found that it is outdated and does not depict a woman from Gaza fleeing recent displacement.

The photo was originally shared on June 15, 2015, when a Turkish website published it as showing Syrians escaping the war.

False Claims Amid the Armed Conflict in Sudan

Amid the armed conflict in Sudan, following a civil war that lasted approximately two to two-and-a-half years and resulted in an estimated 40,000 deaths and the displacement of 12 million people, multiple claims surfaced online in relation to the crisis. Many of these claims extensively used images of women and children, alongside a surge of AI-generated videos and photos depicting fabricated scenes that were falsely presented as real events in Sudan. These were widely shared across several TikTok accounts and amassed huge numbers of views and likes.

Social media users widely circulated a clip claiming to show an RSF militia member torturing a Sudanese woman by tying her to a car and dragging her through the streets. However, Misbar found the footage to be fake, having been created using artificial intelligence.

Similarly, social media users widely circulated a video claiming to show a Sudanese woman emotionally crying, describing the country’s horrific situation, and urging Arabs to help Sudan. However, Misbar’s investigation also found the claim to be false, as the video was digitally created using AI tools.

Claims Targeting Migrant and Minority Women

In August, social media users circulated a video claiming to show a group of Muslims violently attacking a Muslim girl for not covering her arms and failing to follow Sharia law. Misbar found that the video does not depict such an attack. According to local police, the woman in the video, who was wearing a niqab, was caught shoplifting and a security guard stopped her at the checkout, and she resisted by hitting and scratching the guard.

Social media users also widely circulated a video claiming to show German police officers beating a Syrian woman who was raising the flag of the Syrian revolution in Germany. However, the video was originally posted online on November 5, 2024, by the account of the U.K.-based press monitoring organization Middle East Monitor. According to that post, the video actually shows German police violently attacking pro-Palestine women.

Amid a wave of anti-migrant misinformation, a video circulated online claiming to show a Palestinian refugee in Egypt trying to stab a woman at a shopping mall near Cairo after being refused free ice cream. Instead, the footage shows a restaurant worker brandishing a knife during a dispute with customers inside a restaurant in Nasr City, Cairo. The restaurant manager confirmed that the incident involved men, not women, and that the person involved is an Egyptian national, not Palestinian.

This year, misinformation has also targeted religious and racial minorities. For instance, Kurds in Turkey have been the focus of false claims that stir controversy about their presence in the country. Earlier this year, social media users shared a video claiming to show an armored Turkish vehicle running over an elderly Kurdish woman. However, Misbar found that the footage dates back to June 2017, and the incident was ruled by the court to be unintentional.

How Gender Dynamics Influence the Creation and Spread of Misinformation

According to Anwar Mhajne, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Stonehill College and visiting scholar at Harvard, “gender dynamics play a central role in how misinformation and disinformation are produced and circulated during global crises and conflicts.”

In a special interview with Misbar, Anwar emphasized that research in feminist security studies and critical cybersecurity shows that gendered narratives are particularly effective in moments of uncertainty, as they draw on familiar tropes of morality, protection, honor, and deviance.

She explained that Russian information operations have repeatedly leveraged these dynamics, particularly by framing feminism, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ inclusion as Western threats to social order and national sovereignty, an approach that aligns with Russia’s broader promotion of “traditional values” in its foreign information strategy.

In the context of Ukraine, Anwar noted that women’s images and voices are disproportionately targeted in disinformation campaigns. She explained that pro-Kremlin media and affiliated online networks have circulated narratives portraying Ukrainian women as sexually immoral, morally corrupted by the West, or deceitful refugees.

“These narratives undermine both women’s credibility and Ukrainian national legitimacy by tying gender norms to geopolitical allegiance,” she said.

We also asked Hafsa El Mesbahi, a PhD researcher specializing in gender studies, the same question: how gender dynamics influence the creation and spread of misinformation during global crises and conflicts?

“The first idea that comes to mind is the importance of an intersectional analysis,” she said. “In such discussions, gender, race, social class, and nationality all shape whose suffering is misrepresented or erased.”

Hafsa believes that gendered misinformation disproportionately targets racialized migrant  and Global South women, and that these multiple axes of oppression determine whose bodies are made hypervisible or ignored.

From another perspective, she emphasized that masculinized conflict narratives, centered on heroism, aggression, and nationalism, often sideline care- or peace-oriented approaches, which are most frequently associated with femininity.

“Additionally, algorithmic amplification disproportionately spreads sensationalized and sexualized content linked to gender norms, and in crisis situations, it further reinforces gender hierarchies by making audiences more receptive to ‘traditional’ roles and stereotypical behaviors.”

Hafsa, citing Nancy Fraser’s public sphere theory, highlighted that gendered inequalities shape who holds epistemic authority during crises. In other words, “women are often delegitimized or drowned out by dominant narratives, which in turn facilitates the spread of misinformation and the rewriting of narratives where women’s influence is neglected.”

Hafsa emphasized, drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of biopolitics, that amid crises, women’s reproductive capacities are framed as a strategic national resource rather than as individual rights.

According to the researcher, women’s images in the context of crises are mobilized and treated as national symbols, and the suffering of women affected by gender-based violence is selectively amplified or silenced depending on political utility. This, she explained, also “serves to legitimize the extension of military interventions.”

Reasons and Impacts on Women

We asked Anwar Mhajne about the reasons behind the exploitation of women’s images in these contexts. She explained that while high-profile political deepfakes have most visibly targeted male leaders, research shows that women are disproportionately affected by sexualized deepfakes and non-consensual synthetic imagery, which are increasingly used to discredit journalists, activists, and public figures.

The scholar cited examples from Ukraine, where women journalists and civil society actors have reported impersonation, fabricated audio, and manipulated images spreading through Telegram and fringe platforms associated with pro-Russian networks, even when direct links to the Russian state are unclear.

“Russian and pro-authoritarian actors’ narratives consistently depict feminism as a foreign imposition and women activists as destabilizing agents.” According to Anwar, these claims reflect authoritarian gender politics rather than locally grounded feminist movements.

For Anwar Mhajne, the impacts on women are cumulative and structural. “Individually, gendered disinformation and deepfakes expose women to reputational harm, harassment, sexualized abuse, and silencing, raising the cost of public participation.”

Structurally, she sees these practices as deterring women’s political engagement, normalizing the surveillance of women’s bodies and voices, and reinforcing existing power hierarchies in digital conflict environments.

The scholar believes that, over time, this dynamic embeds gender inequality into the very architecture of “contemporary information warfare,” often justified under the guise of national security.

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