As I was scrolling through X, I came across a photo of three young women on a day out, who happened to be wearing hijabs

‘@grok put them in a bikini’, read one reply.

‘@grok have her wear a see-through plastic bikini’, said another.

And those were the more vanilla ones.

As I kept scrolling, the demands became more and more explicit, such as semen on their faces and, for some reason, bare feet. And Grok, X’s AI chatbot, had obliged.

Several requests specified that all clothes should be removed – except their hijabs.

Muslim women who have posted pictures of themselves on social media have been targeted by men because they wear hijab, by men who get off on seeing women who have chosen to cover up, stripped naked. A WIRED review of 500 Grok images found that around 5% featured images of women who, as a result of user prompts, were either stripped or made to wear religious or cultural clothing, with modest Islamic wear and Indian saris being the most common examples.

At the heart of this disturbing trend is the intersectionality of racism, misogyny and Islamophobia, where women have had their faith and gender weaponised against them.

These deepfakes deliberately fetishise the hijab, which is a symbol of modesty and plays into stereotypes of Muslim women being submissive and sexually repressed.

It has also once again called into question how safe the online space is for women, especially marginalised women.

“There aren’t many spaces for Muslim women in the real world, partly because of cultural rules, but also, so the online space has given us a lot of freedom that we don’t get in real life to express ourselves,” Ayesha, 19 (who only wanted to give her first name)

“Some of my friends are crazy, though, like they wear hijab IRL, but post pictures of themselves in sexy clothes like the Kardashians.

“One of my friends posted a video of herself dressed like Lara in Katseye and dancing to Gabriella, which got loads of views. I would have freaked out, but she was like, ‘My mum doesn’t even have Facebook’.

“That’s not me, though. My faith is important to me, and my hijab represents that,” she explained.

“I started posting stuff for fun, really, just make-up reviews or trips abroad. Most of my followers are Muslim women like me who are practising Muslims, but want to enjoy fashion and beauty, too. I only have 200 followers, so it’s not like I’m a big influencer or anything.

“I got a direct message, and a guy I didn’t know sent me a screenshot and said, ‘Is this you? I didn’t know you were such a ho'”.

To her horror, what had been a harmless picture she posted on Instagram from a trip to Morocco had been edited so she was wearing just a bra and thong and posted on an account on X.com, which posts sexualised images of women in hijab. The account, which has now been suspended, had 100k followers.

“My legs gave way beneath me, and I couldn’t breathe. I was trembling and burst into tears. I don’t know whether it is right to say it felt like being raped because I don’t want to sound like I am downplaying what women who have been raped have been through, but it made me feel violated, dirty and disgusting.

“What was really gross was that they got off on seeing me naked except for my hijab, so it felt racist and Islamophobic.”

The account was suspended due to numerous reports by hundreds of users.