What breaks today
Incumbent experiment platforms are structurally misaligned with MENA research: script engines that corrupt Arabic ligatures and Tashkeel, stimulus libraries that are almost exclusively Western, and data residency that conflicts with PDPL and peer GCC regimes.
Why “Arabic mode” is not the answer
Retrofitting RTL onto a left-to-right product treats Arabic as a stylesheet fix. Ecological validity requires regionally validated word norms, picture sets, and dialect screening inside the picker — not translated English lists.
What Biruni is building
Ingest AraLex, Kalimah, the Arabic Lexicon Project, and Gulf/Levantine picture databases into the task engine, with dialectal participant screening and an opt-in Norming Exchange that compounds regional baselines over time.