Images produced by artificial intelligence are weaponized againnst women politicians in pakistan. The latest example involves social media posts that falsely shared a video of Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the first woman prime minister of Punjab – apparently mocking the UAE's Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan – an action on to consider culturally inappropriate in the conservative country. An AI expert confirmed that the video was made.
“It's the heat,” read the caption at a YouTube video shared on January 6, 2025.
The video, which has garnered more than a million views, appears to show Maryam Nawaz Sharif mocking an Arab leader at an airport as her uncle. – Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif — look at.
The song “Garmi” (Heat) from the Indian film “Street Dancer 3D” can be heard in the background.
The message was shared by a YouTube account that regularly posts content supporting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
The PTI is strongly opposed to the Sharif clan to which Maryam belongs.
The 51-year-old became the first female chief minister in Pakistan's Punjab province in February 2024. She is the daughter of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the niece of Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Screenshot of the fabricated video shared on YouTube, taken January 14, 2025
AI intimate images of women are often in the public domain armed online in an attempt to damage their reputation (archive link).
Former Pakistani lawmaker Meena Majeed targeted with a similar video emerging showing her teasing an unrelated male minister.
Share the video elsewhere on YouTube here and here when Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Pakistan in January.
Authorities have arrest eight people accused of sharing and editing the doctored images to allegedly break the law against cybercrimes (archive link).
AI generated
Reverse image search of the key frames of the video on Google brought to a picture uploaded on the X account of Zeeshan Malik, Maryam's special assistant and political secretary, on January 5, 2025 (archive link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the fake video (left) and the photo in Malik's X post (right):
A screenshot comparison of the fake video (left) and the photo in Malik's X post (right)
An AI expert pointed out visual clues in the video that suggested it was done.
“This video is generated by AI, verified by both our detection algorithms and our visual analysis,” Siwei Lyudirector of the Media Forensic Lab at the University at Buffalo, told AFP (archive link).
“This appears to be generated by image-to-video generation techniques such as the Runway ML system.”
He pointed to Al Nahyan's right arm which seems to be “passing through” Maryam's left arm.
Al Nahyan's arm appears to disappear into Nawaz Sharif's arm in the fake video
AFP did not find any press statements issued by the politicians when they met.
