With the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, News@AUC spoke with Ibrahim Awad, research professor in global affairs and director of AUC’s Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, to examine the migratory, economic and political consequences of the conflict in the region.
A large mass displacement of international refugees depends on how long the conflict lasts, the level of violence and whether both seriously affect Iranian society, Awad noted.
Nevertheless, he signaled that internal displacement is already occurring in Iran and Lebanon. According to a UNHCR estimate, between 600,000 to 1 million Iranian households are temporarily displaced due to the conflict, which has killed 1,400 people in Iran and 826 in Lebanon. Initial estimates of 100,000 people fled Tehran in the first two days of the war. With Israel announcing a ground incursion into Lebanon, 815,000 people from Beirut and southern Lebanon have also been displaced.
Awad noted that Gulf states have a large population of migrant workers from the Arab World, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe whom work in all the sectors of their economies and send remittances home. For countries that receive large amounts of remittances, this could hurt economies abroad.
“If economic activity is affected in the Gulf for a long period of time, the enterprises that hire migrant workers might not be able to keep them,” he said. “This affects employment because some workers may return to their countries of origin, constituting pressures on their labor markets. It will also affect remittances that they send to their countries of origin, and these remittances are important sources of foreign exchange in most cases.”
Stopping the war and finding a solution acceptable to both parties in the conflict is the only way to avoid a severe economic impact, Awad declared.
“If the war continues, the economic repercussions will be heavier and heavier,” he said. “So there’s no way to mitigate these repercussions while the war is going on.” He listed rising oil, gas, food prices and inflation more generally as well as a slowdown of international trade as factors that will impact the global economy.”
Awad explained that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will spark repercussions in the Suez Canal and regional economies, noting how the Egyptian pound fell from EGP 47 to 52 against the dollar in the past week. On March 10, the price of gasoline rose from EGP 10 to EGP 13 per cubic metre. “These are the economic reasons why the region, including Egypt, wanted to avoid this war at all costs,” he stated.
About one-fifth of the world’s oil production is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed by the war. Oil prices are currently volatile, with the price of crude surging to $110 a barrel on Monday, still higher than the pre-war price of $73.
Awad emphasized that a closed Strait of Hormuz could make Europe’s opposition to importing Russian oil and gas increasingly difficult if the war continues, causing pressure for large oil-importing countries in the European continent and beyond. The closure sparked the United States to ease sanctions for countries purchasing Russian oil and petroleum, a move rejected by Germany, France, Norway and the United Kingdom. A closure of the strait could also raise the price of foodstuffs worldwide, Awad explained, as it will prevent shipments of natural gas used to manufacture fertilizers.
Awad also noted that regional tourism is likely to drop sharply, while the closure of airspace across Gulf states has disrupted international travel, causing financial strain for airlines and economic pressure on tourism-dependent countries like Egypt. These shifts reflect how regional instability can quickly translate into rising inflation, strained household budgets and challenges to local economies.
“Instability in the region has consequences, even if instability is, in fact, far from Egypt,” Awad affirmed.
“No one currently knows how the war will progress or end,” Awad said, laying out three scenarios for the lasting impact of the conflict:
Awad argued that if the war ends with Iran intact and a regime change that accommodates U.S. interests, the situation can still be volatile because “it isn’t only the United States that has objectives to realize out of this war. Israel has its own objectives that might not be in step with the United States.”
Awad emphasized the importance of a joint solution to end the conflict and not a unilateral declaration of victory. For example, if President Donald Trump did declare victory, the Iranian government may not accept an end to the conflict without a guaranteed change to the pre-war status quo, Awad noted.
“They do not want to go back to the status quo when they were suffering from sanctions for decades and decades,” he said.
Awad expressed skepticism about the ability of the United Nations Security Council to pass a vote to end the war due to the structural veto power of member states. “International organizations are paralyzed by their most important members,” Awad said, citing the United States issuing six vetoes of UN Security Council resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza as an example of this limitation. “The UN General Assembly is just a way for member states to apply pressure by expressing the will of the international community.”
The U.S. and Israel-Iran war has raised criticisms of violations of international law. The United Nations called for an investigation into the February 28 U.S. strike on an Iranian school in Minab, which killed at least 165 schoolgirls. “This provoked a response from Iran, which couldn’t reach the United States, so it launched missiles toward its neighbors in the Gulf,” said Awad.
“All of these actions contradict international law, but unfortunately, international organizations cannot take effective action because of the flaw in how such organizations were conceived,” he added. “They gave decision-making power to the most powerful countries, who will not act against themselves.”
Awad believes the war could end through intervention or collective action by a coalition of regional powers from around the world.
“Europe would not like to have another flow of refugees, so you can imagine that a coalition of countries may cautiously intervene,” he said.
Research Professor in Global Affairs Ibrahim Awad provides insight on the global consequences of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Can data be sexist? Does artificial intelligence have the ability to discriminate?
As AI has developed rapidly over the past decade, researchers have discovered the real-world harm of potential bias in the data and the ways it disproportionately affects women and marginalized groups. Through the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) at the Onsi Sawiris School of Business, and its flagship initiative the MENA Observatory on Responsible AI, Nagla Rizk ’83, ’87, professor of economics and founding director of A2K4D, is leading the Feminist AI Research Network’s MENA hub. The network aims to develop AI systems and algorithms in a way that is inclusive, creating new opportunities and innovative solutions to correct inequalities.
So what is feminist AI? Rizk explained, “Feminist AI refers to the act of deconstructing oppressive systems, dismantling historic biases and engrained inequalities, then building inclusive AI structures that are based on principles of justice, transparency, agency, pluralism and more.” In short, it is the development and maintenance of artificial intelligence systems that ensure fairness across genders. AI has the potential to amplify biases and generate new ones. Feminist AI works to deconstruct these biases and create innovative solutions from within the data and algorithm design, addressing these inequalities.
Feminist AI is closely linked to the principle of “intersectionality” which refers to the “interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems discrimination or disadvantage.” Rizk added, “It is, in short, when oppression is linked.”
Humans have implicit biases, and when we create algorithms and AI models that rely on big data, those biases can unintentionally be amplified. Rizk seeks to find places where there may be data blur, data bias and data invisibility—and address these issues from the root.
“Technology has the potential to advance development, inclusion and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, there is also a peril,” Rizk stated. “As humans build AI models–with data and algorithms at their core—in every link of this chain lies a trigger for potential inequality. This could negatively impact women and marginalized groups. So it's important to think of inclusion when designing AI models.”
Data can be biased against women on both the micro and macro scales. For example, if you do an image search for the word ‘doctor’ on Google, 36% of results are women, whereas if you search up ‘domestic helper,’ 96% of results are women. Expanding out, Amazon’s AI hiring tools were more likely to prefer male candidates, as they were trained on male-dominated data from the tech industry. Apple-approved credit cards for candidates based on a biased data set would grant men 10-20 times higher credit than their wives. “These structural flaws in the data compound systemic issues that women already face, such as gender-based hiring, pay gaps and lack of financial security,” said Rizk.
Data also has ways of forgetting women. For example, the first iteration of Apple’s health app did not include women’s monthly health cycles. Additionally, there have been cases when diagnosing cardiovascular diseases, AI models have reproduced gender biases that exist in the real world and are less likely to take women’s symptoms seriously. “If women are invisible in the data, they will be invisible in the policy,” Rizk warned.
“If women are invisible in the data, they will be invisible in the policy."
“If we don't adopt a feminist sensitive approach to technology, we risk leaving behind a key part of the population. We also risk running into problems that will need to be fixed later after they’ve already caused damage,” explained Rizk. “The important point is that feminist AI is proactive. It is transformational.”
The Feminist AI MENA hub is working within the larger network now labelled as “Catalyzing Inclusive AI Research Network” with support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Feminist AI research strives to take forward-looking steps that dismantle patriarchal structures, oppressive systems and historical inequalities inherent in technology and society in both the digital and analogue worlds. The hub’s work seeks to support the construction of inclusive systems that overcome biases, based on feminist principles, addressing intersectionality, and ensuring diversity in representation and justice in the building, deployment and impact of AI.
From research to large scale collaborations with NGOs and government partners, the Feminist AI MENA hub is working to catalyze inclusive AI for development. Rizk emphasized the importance of looking at AI and gender inequality in the MENA-specific context, “The MENA region has its own nuances which require a region-specific response.”
One example of the work supported by the hub is research developing Arabic feminist data sets as part of a larger project to apply data feminism principles to assess bias in English and Arabic Natural Language processing. Another is work supported by the hub to develop an AI tutoring system to assist teachers to teach math in Arabic to girls of different ages in underprivileged community schools in Upper Egypt (Sa’eed). There, girls unfortunately do not receive the same schooling opportunities as boys and require additional support. In both examples, AI is used as a tool that, if properly controlled for potential biases, promotes equal opportunity between the genders.
Encouraging STEM education for women is crucial to increase the gender balance in the design of technology. In the MENA region, the gender gap is much more pronounced in the area of STEM work than it is in STEM education. This is termed “the gender paradox.” The absence of women in STEM work creates a “feedback loop” where the algorithm is not gender sensitive and ends up discriminating against women. This is both a product of the culture and cycles back into it.
“If we don't adopt a feminist sensitive approach to technology, we risk leaving behind a key part of the population."
Examples of algorithmic biases in MENA can be found in implicit biases in gig work app algorithms evidenced by the hub’s research on gig work, following earlier research on women in ride sharing in Egypt, and work with research partners in the region. In ride sharing apps, the fact that bonuses are determined by algorithms based on the number of hours of work automatically means that women will be discriminated against as they put in less work hours due to their home care responsibilities. To make up for that, women end up driving at odd surge hours, subjecting themselves to safety hazards, especially in remote areas with limited connectivity. Because they carry the labor of being care givers, women are likely to be punished by ride-sharing app algorithms. This compounds the challenges of this work, which is already precarious lacking job security, social protection and insurance. With the region experiencing the highest global female unemployment rate and the lowest global female labor participation rate, these women end up being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
By performing evidence-based research directly in the region, the Feminist AI MENA hub can better support transformational technology development and bring those findings to the international feminist AI network. “Technology is a product of society, and should respond to the needs of society. What we hope for is that technology is informed by what is going on in reality.” Therefore, added Rizk, “the technology for the MENA region has to speak to the needs of the MENA region.”
Rizk and her colleagues plan on continuing to develop region-sensitive research, and bringing their findings to policy makers, civil society, and the international research network. Outside of the hub, Rizk is taking these principles into the classroom through teaching the course Feminist AI: Technology, Gender and Development. “It gave students a different perspective on using technology,” Rizk said, describing the impact she saw in her students. “We had two male students conduct research on the need to use feminist AI principles in FinTech. To me, it was really fulfilling to have students be aware of how you could actually implement principles of responsible AI.”
“We want to raise awareness and deliver a message of fairness, justice and inclusion,” Rizk concluded. “To be a feminist, you must always be sympathetic to all marginalized communities, not just to women. Therefore, technology must be inclusive to all. We work towards that future.”
Professor Nagla Rizk unpacks the principles of feminist AI and the importance of inclusion in technology and data application.
March 8 marks International Women’s Day, celebrating women’s achievements and highlighting the ways we can work together to improve the quality of life for women and girls worldwide. Helen Rizzo, associate professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology, Egyptology and Anthropology and the director of the Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies, sat down with News@AUC to discuss the history of this holiday and the impact it has on feminism worldwide.
“The history of International Women’s Day is quite interesting, as it’s always been tied to women’s labor movements,” Rizzo explained.
The first International Women’s Day took place in 1909, hosted by the Socialist Party in the United States, celebrating women’s participation in the workforce. As an arm of first-wave feminism, these early women’s days were centered around ending gender discrimination in employment as well as women’s suffrage. The day was a way to highlight the issues facing women and celebrate the achievements that had been made. By 1914, March 8, which so happened to be the Sunday that year, spread across Europe as a day for women to raise their voices and be heard.
As time passed, International Women’s Day continued to evolve. “In the 1960s and 1970s, second-wave feminism caused a revival in celebrating March 8,” Rizzo continued. “The Women's History Center, which was an archive of the women's movement in Berkeley, went even further and established March as Women's History Month in the United States. Then, the United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day in 1975 to commemorate this day for women's rights and international peace. That’s when it truly became a global phenomenon.”
Having a globally focused women’s day allows for feminist scholars to engage with the transnational ways women’s issues affect each other. For gender practitioners, offering support across borders is incredibly important for gender parity worldwide. There are many ways to celebrate International Women’s Day, but a major part is analyzing how to improve the status of women globally. The United Nations declared the theme for the 2026 International Women’s Day to be ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,’ emphasizing the importance of a global perspective.
“The UN lists the areas where women are still unequal, which includes unemployment, the wage gap as well as violence in the workplace, the home and public spaces,” Rizzo explained. “There are still all kinds of issues where we need to make progress. The UN has a statistic that it will take over 200 years to close legal protection gaps. We’re facing the same issues we faced 100 years ago, which is why this day is still important.”
"We’re facing the same issues we faced 100 years ago, which is why this day is still important.”
Highlighting the areas she believes the international community must continue to focus on, Rizzo noted, “There are many critical issues that disproportionately affect women. Gender-based violence can be devastating for many women and girls. Armed conflict and wars, combined with political violence, disproportionately harm women.” .
With education, we’re still not there yet, Rizzo explained. “There has been a lot of improvement in women’s education. However, there are still areas, even in this region, where women face high barriers to education. We’re also seeing issues where women receive an education, but that doesn’t translate into employment or equal wages.”
Wage inequality is prevalent across the world and still heavily impacts Egypt, Rizzo said, adding that family law is still a topic in the region that needs reform in order to reach gender equality. “Without equal rights within marriages and family relations, women are more restricted and have fewer access to protections,” she said.
While these issues might feel overwhelming, Rizzo emphasized the power we as individuals have to make a difference. “Spreading information and performing research as a University is a critical step in helping women and girls,” she affirmed. “Having a public reminder to everyone that we still need to work on issues of inequality and discrimination is essential. It’s important to provide evidence that inequality is still there. The research we do at AUC can work in tandem with NGOs, social movements and international organizations that can translate into policy recommendations and social change.”
“Spreading information and performing research as a University is a critical step in helping women and girls."
In addition, Rizzo expressed that both men and women are critical parts of achieving gender equality. Men too are hurt by the standards set up by the patriarchy: They’re not encouraged to express a range of emotions, there is less room for them to explore “feminine” fields and they are often placed into societal boxes. While International Women’s Day focuses on women, achieving gender parity helps people of all sexes. “It’s critical to have men as allies in feminist spaces,” Rizzo stated. “Gender equality does not merely mean rights for women. It means equality overall, and that includes men.”
Looking toward the future of gender equality, Rizzo believes it's essential to have as many gender practitioners as possible. An engaged, active look into gender equality is now more important than ever before. There are growing attacks on academic freedom in the Global North, and funding toward women’s studies has been severely cut and departments and programs have been shut down in places like the United States, she stated.
“I went to a workshop in Morocco last year where they invited the directors of gender and women’s studies centers from across the Middle East and North Africa region. The goal was to try to map academic departments, research centers and NGOs focused on women’s rights across the region to form a support network,” Rizzo shared.
"Global gender equality must be based in all parts of the world, and there is plenty of action we can take from the Middle East."
The workshop was funded by the United Nations and the women’s section of the Arab League, and will lead to an official UN report. “Given what’s happening to gender studies programs in the United States, it’s time for our region to step up,” Rizzo concluded. “Global gender equality must be based in all parts of the world, and there is plenty of action we can take from the Middle East. International Women’s Day is a time where we can appreciate the action that’s been made and figure out how moving forward will benefit as many women as possible.”
Take a look into the history behind International Women's Day, and why it's important to celebrate today.
