Is This The Middle East? explores the violent Orientalism of video games

In the digital age, video games have become one of the most influential cultural mediums, shaping how we perceive the world around us. Yet, the portrayal of regions like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) often leans into harmful stereotypes—depicting them as war-torn, exotic, or foreign landscapes. We sit down with Rayane Jemaa creator of Is This the Middle East?, a project that challenges these reductive representations by blending art, design, and critical analysis. Through the immersive work, the artist offers a powerful commentary on how digital spaces shape our understanding of culture, identity, and geopolitical realities. As the lines between the virtual and the real blur, Is This the Middle East? invites viewers to reconsider the images they encounter, pushing for a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the MENA region in digital media.

Is this the Middle East? explores the depiction of the Middle East and North Africa in video games. What initially sparked your curiosity to analyse these portrayals through digital art?

During the COVID lockdown, I revisited video games I used to play when I was younger. Although I wouldn’t call myself a dedicated gamer, gaming became a way to pass the time—and it aligned with my studies in Media Design and my broader interest in digital worlds. As I immersed myself again, I became increasingly fascinated with world-building and how games construct the illusion of vast, never-ending environments. This curiosity soon turned critical, I began noticing not just technical flaws, but cultural inaccuracies. At the time, I was writing my bachelor’s dissertation on the relationship between vernacular architecture in the Tunis Medina and recreational drones, which led me into deep research on representations of “The Arab City.” Seeing how video games recreated Arab cities—often loosely and carelessly.

You’ve described how video games often depict the MENA region through violent and stereotypical lenses. How do you think these portrayals influence players’ perceptions of the real-world MENA region?

Video games have become inherently political. Since the early 2000s, games have often been developed for military purposes before being released to the public. A prime example is the 2004 game “Full Spectrum Warrior,” initially set in Eastern Europe. After 9/11 and the U.S. decision to invade Iraq, the game’s setting was changed to a “Middle Eastern” landscape. This shift underscores the close relationship between politics, entertainment, and propaganda. The military aimed to depict the soldiers’ experiences, which involved simplifying the landscape and casting the local population as “the bad guys.” This game, along with many others, has helped cement the Middle East as a backdrop for entertainment and, arguably, propaganda.

You can see how these visual narratives get recycled. For example, I started noticing how many games include statues that seem to directly reference the 2003 media spectacle of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad. Even when the figure’s face is changed or the setting is fictional, there’s something unmistakable in the posture, the hand gestures, or even the staging of the statue. It’s rarely acknowledged outright, but the influence is there. These recurring visuals quietly embed a specific political narrative into the backdrop of these games—often without players consciously noticing.

How do you see these portrayals of the MENA as a form of contemporary Orientalism, and why is it important to address this issue through your art?

What we once saw in Orientalist paintings—depictions of the Middle East as exotic, static, or foreign—has now taken on a new digital form, often framed through violence and conflict. These representations may be rendered with high visual fidelity, but they’re often shallow, stereotypical, and inaccurate.

This kind of representation isn’t harmless—it shapes how players, often unconsciously, understand and imagine the region. By addressing these issues through art and design, I want to create space for reflection and conversation. Besides the meaningless Arabic texts (sometimes written in upside-down Arabic), I was also interested in the words used—for example, how often the word “carpet” appears in games (It’s a lot of times and feels like a Design requirement).

What’s also ironic is that some games go so far as to include actual Orientalist paintings in their scenes—sometimes even well-known works by Orientalist painters. These paintings are often used decoratively, as set dressing for background walls or interiors, without any context. It’s a strange loop, where the same colonial gaze that shaped 19th-century depictions of the region is reinserted —literally—into digital spaces today.

How do you see the connection between technology and cultural representation in both your digital art and academic work?

Both are definitely linked. My dissertation on drones and the Tunis Medina was actually the starting point for Is This the Middle East?. In that research, I looked at how emerging technologies—like recreational drones—interact with traditional urban spaces in the Arab world, and how these tools reshape the way we see, access, and document those environments.

That project made me more aware of the relationship between technology and visual representation—especially how certain tools can flatten or distort cultural realities. That same critical lens carried over into my work on video games, where I began noticing how virtual representations of Arab cities are often based on generic, stereotypical imagery rather than actual places or lived experiences.

Stereotypes about the MENA region persist. What role do you think artists and creators can play in challenging these stereotypes within the gaming industry?

The title Is This the Middle East? is meant to provoke that very question—it invites viewers to look again, to question what they’re being shown, and to reflect on how digital media constructs cultural narratives.

I believe artists and creators have a key role in challenging these portrayals by offering counter-narratives or even just creating space for questioning. Using visual storytelling to explore these topics can be incredibly powerful—it makes the conversation more engaging and opens it up to people beyond academic or specialist circles.

How can this exploration of digital spaces contribute to a deeper understanding of the real-world complexities of the Middle East?

To question what you are looking at. Images are powerful and can easily shape our world view, often unconsciously. “Is This the Middle East?” is by no means a solution, but merely a way to help people question images they see. As video games become a global medium, they are increasingly how people first “encounter” other cultures, and it’s the developer’s job to make sure they aren’t feeding into these stereotypes.