Women auctioned in India, don’t know it

On the night of July 4, Afrin Fatima participated in a digital forum on the persecution of Muslims in India. As soon as his session was over, his cell phone began to fill with messages, stating that the activist had been “put up for sale” in a fake online auction. But she is not alone. Published in the app as photos of more than 80 Muslim women, including students, activists and journalists “Ofertas Sully” (Sully deals) Without your knowledge.

Users of the site had the opportunity to hear the disgusting word “sulli” used by right-wing Hindus for Muslim women in “Weekly Offers”.

Fatima said the incident started the day An extreme right-wing Hindu, who called for the abduction of Muslim women at a rally in Pataudi It is about 60 km from New Delhi. “I was so sorry I could not sleep,” he told Al Jazeera.

It is also concerned about the direct consequences of this attack, “What if someone comes and asks for your day offer?”, He asked himself. “I see nothing to stop them from doing that.”

“At the same time, I don’t think I’m ever going to keep my mouth shut about this. We will continue to occupy every public space on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, online, offline, everywhere,” he added.

Thousands of miles away In New York, Hiba Beck found her profile at a virtual auction. According to Beck, a political student at Columbia University, even a physical distance from India is not enough to immediately protect this 25-year-old from “humanization and a sense of failure”.

Kithub, the service provider of the app, downplayed it after public outrage and complaints. “We are suspending users following the investigation of such activity, all of which violates our policies,” said one GidHub member. “GitHub contains policies and policies against harassment, discrimination and incitement to violence.”

On July 8, the Delhi Police filed a police report following the Delhi Women’s Commission (DCW) and the National Commission for Women calling for an inquiry into the outrage of Muslim women. Chinmay Biswal of the Indian City Police said the investigation had already begun and “a notice has been sent to Kithub to share relevant details.”

More than a week after the application was discovered, No one was arrested.

Rana Ayub, a persecuted activist and journalist for her claims and beliefs, said that these situations are systematically created with the intention of persecuting Muslim women. He also believes in “the way” [los grupos hindúes de extrema derecha] The only way they think Muslim women can be ashamed and silent on the internet is to use you sexually. We must be ‘humbled’ in their books, so they ask, ‘How dare you speak for us?’

Sania Ahmed, a media expert profiled on the page, said she was not surprised by this type of online violence. At age 34 and with 34,000 followers on Twitter, he said the site has been used to create online threats.

“Shocking”

Ahmadinejad’s pictures were turned into pornography this year after Eid al-Adha (the celebration of Muslim sacrifice, the most important in his calendar) spoke out against the virtual auction of Muslim women. It was so shocking that he left Twitter and was subjected to panic attacks. “When they insult me, my gender identity can never be separated from my religious identity. They do not insult me ​​as a woman, they insult me ​​as a Muslim woman who speaks political issues mainly through Hindutva stories. ” The term “Hindutva” defines the beliefs of Hinduism as filtered according to the vision of the extreme right of the Asian nation.

He sent a legal notice to Twitter last week with instructions to curb this level of hate speech and abuse on stage. “I never complained to the police and none of these complaints saw sunlight,” he said.

Hasiba Amin, the social media coordinator of the Congress party and one of the victims of the auction, has been frustrated with the legal process in such cases after sending a legal petition to the perpetrators.

“We’re not going to shut up.”

Activists fear that the virtual space in India will become toxic to women in general, especially Muslim women.

In January, Amnesty International India issued a statement More than 100 policies in the country have been abused online on Twitter. These women were persecuted not only for the opinions expressed on the web, but also for their gender, religion, caste and marital status.

Brinda Bandari, a lawyer who specializes in privacy and digital rights, said: “Therefore, Muslim female politicians have been attacked more than their Hindu opponents. It is important to frame these crimes on the basis of hate speech, because we need to recognize the general angle of the crime, the disgusting use of the word ‘sully’ and how it is used to attack Muslim women. ” Bandari confirmed.

It is in this context that the persecution of Muslim women becomes more and more sexual and graphic nuances of virtual and non-virtual.

Kasala Jameel, an assistant professor at the Center for Law and Personality Research at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said. “In India in particular, this trend has been linked to widespread punishment, especially for overt violence against Muslim women. In my reading, this is an extension of the virtual “auction” harassment. It is reminiscent of the slave trade on the one hand and the killing of civilians on the other. “

Hana Mohsin Khan, a victim of “sully privileges”, formed a WhatsApp group called “Solidarity” which includes more than 20 women victims of the network. Khan, a pilot on the domestic hotline, made a police statement and revealed that he had the support of all these women.

“We all support each other, we work together, we don’t sleep. We will not shut our mouths, we will not let this happen.”

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