London: Several major AI chatbots removed hijabs from Muslim women’s images when prompted, according to tests by The Guardian, with internal tests by Arab News corroborating the findings.
The Guardian tested ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini and Claude. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and xAI’s Grok complied with requests to remove a hijab from an AI-generated image of a woman. Anthropic’s Claude refused, stating it would not alter a photo to remove someone’s hijab. Google’s Gemini initially declined, citing the need for the subject’s consent, but when asked to make the woman appear more “Western,” it generated an image of her without a hijab.
Arab News conducted its own test and found that ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini complied with the request. Claude again refused. “Without her consent, that crosses a line for me, whatever the intent behind it,” Claude told Arab News.
The investigation followed a post by Julien Odoul, a French lawmaker from the far-right National Rally party, who shared an altered image of a Muslim woman on X with the caption “Liberte Francaise” or “French liberty.” Her hijab and long-sleeved dress had been digitally removed.
The Guardian described the alteration as “a violation of one of the world’s most common and visible expressions of faith” and linked the incident to a wider pattern of technology-enabled anti-Muslim hatred.
A study by the Washington-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate found that generative AI tools are increasingly being used in India to produce images that sexualize Muslim women or dehumanize Muslims more broadly. India Hate Lab, a project of the same organization, recorded 1,165 hate-speech events targeting religious minorities in India in 2024, a 74.4 percent increase from 2023. Muslims were targeted in 98.5 percent of those incidents, either alone or alongside Christians.
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate also identified similar AI-enabled hatred directed at prominent Muslim women politicians in the United States, including Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
“This is part of an ongoing trend of how we see Muslim communities, and particularly Muslim women, being targeted and abused,” said Eviane Leidig, Director of Research and Outreach at the Center.
When The Guardian asked ChatGPT and Grok to remove a dress from an AI-generated woman, both refused, citing the risk of exposing the person’s body. This inconsistency highlights what Leidig described as gaps in the community guidelines governing AI image tools. “De-veiling Muslim women may not be distinctly violative of platform rules, but it’s still harmful,” she said.
