Changing roles through AI: When a beach picture flips the perspective

The scene on the picture is at first look very simple, but visually shocking. A woman is lying in her bikinis on a beach bed near a luxury pool, she is sunbathing, laughing and enjoying a hot summer day. Next to her stands a man. He is covered from head to toe in a thick black niqab, and you can see only his eyes.

In his hands, he holds a tray and brings a cold lemonade to the woman. It is clear to everyone on the first look that this is a digital graphic created with Artificial Intelligence. And yet, this single shot makes thousands of users think very deeply.

Why does this look make so strong emotions in us? Because all the change is that with one simple click in a graphic program, the roles were reversed. Suddenly, it is the man who must strictly hide his face, body and hair from the hot summer sun.

Suddenly, it is the man whose "natural modesty" must protect the morality of the society at all costs. Suddenly, it is the man who could be called a sinful tempter if he shows just a little piece of bare skin on public. And exactly in this second, most of the western readers start to feel in their guts how unbelievable absurd and strange such a system realy is.

When the mirror brings uncomfortable feelings

Similar visual experiments set up a very uncomfortable mirror for us. You don't have to be an enemy of Islam and you don't even have to be a religious person to ask one very simple question. How would the modern world react if the exact same rules of the game applied to men? Imagine a reality where an adult man cannot leave the borders of his house without a written permission from his wife or mother. A reality where a man would be hard criticized and socially condemned just because he is hot and rolled up his sleeves to show his forearms. If he was seen as a public threat just because his clothes are not loose enough.

Suddenly, it feels completely impossible and upside down for us. And this is the giant success of these AI generated images. These visual experiments don't attack anyone aggressively. They don't use vulgar insults or cheap political shouting. They just take the reality, flip its perspective by 180 degrees and leave the reader to find the answer in his own mind.

Islam is not just one black and white world

But here, from the view of journalistic honesty, it is necessary to say one important thing. Islam is definitely not one single, rigid piece. Almost two billion people live on our planet according to this religion in dozens of different countries and cultures, and there are huge differences between them.

A Muslim woman living in liberal Indonesia lives her everyday life completely different than a woman in conservative Saudi Arabia. A modern Muslim woman in Bosnia has completely different options than a girl under oppression in Afghanistan. And a student from a Muslim family in Paris can have totally different life values and freedoms than a woman in theocratic Iran.

On the other side, it is also honest to openly admit that in some parts of the world, women are under brutal and uncompromising systemic limits. In Afghanistan under the current rule of radical Taliban, women are banned from studying at universities, most of them cannot do any work and their walking on the street must follow draconian rules.

In Iran, the mandatory covering of the head became the main symbol of hard state control over the human body, and the mass protests after the tragic death of young Mahsa Amini went around the whole world some time ago. These are not prejudices, these are internationally proven facts.

Where does faith end and where does fear begin?

Exactly in this point, the biggest global fight is happening. Many confident Muslim women in the western world proudly say: "My scarf is my choice, I wear it voluntary and it shows my identity." But on the other side of the barricade, millions of women whisper the exact opposite: "I have no choice, if I don't cover myself, prison, violence or social death is waiting for me." Both of these groups realy exist.

That is why it is very dangerous to say that every woman in a hijab is automatically a victim of oppression. But it is also dangerous and hypocritical to pretend that systemic pressure does not exist anywhere. It exists and in many places of the planet it has a very cruel face.

Maybe that is why this new AI trend is spreading on internet with such incredible speed. Not because it tells us something new that we didn't know. But because it shows the old, painful question of human rights in a completely different way.

What feels like a normal thing for one gender for centuries suddenly starts to feel like an absolute injustice to the other gender in the moment when they swap the roles for a short time. And that is maybe the biggest current power of Artificial Intelligence. It doesn't just create pretty pictures for fun. It can tear down the mask of hypocrisy in a single second and set a mirror to humanity. A mirror that is not easy to look into, but we need it even more.

Sorry for my mistakes, English is not my native language but I am trying my best to share these important stories!