TROLLS ARE MIFFED, I DON'T WEAR HIJAB

The only difference between BarkhaDutt’strollingandtheabuse and threats I face on social media is that mine are laced with religious connotations.

Jihadi Jane, ISIS sex slave, porkistani, RanaHafizSaeed,Islamicfundamentalist are just a few terms used for me by Twitter trolls, many of whom happen to be active BJP members. My face has been photoshopped over a naked body and Twitter trendslike#RanaayyubCDand#RanaAyyubRandi run for days when the trolls can’t defeat me with facts.

ThatIamRana‘Ayyub’makesitworse. That I profess liberal, democratic ideas of India and continue to be a practising Muslimisunfathomableformany.ThatItweet pictures of my Ramzan iftar and Eid celebration adds to the vitriol and sexist abuse I face for my comments, columns and tweets on politics and social justice. Being a Muslim and a journalist who is critical of the political dispensation, purely on journalistic merit, has added me to the list of condemned. I am everything that a ‘Muslim’womanwhospeakshermindcanbe.A terror sympathiser, an apologist for the terroraccused,aslavetoconservatives,an accused whose ideology is responsible for killings across the world.

On a recent television debate, a BJP spokesperson dared me to chant ‘Bharat matakijai’andprovethatIlovedmycountry as much as any other did. Celebrity filmmakers aligned with the BJP make snide references to my affiliation with IslamandmostrecentlyboxerYogeshwar Dutt tweeted to ask if I had any love for my country.

It is also ironic that trolls are miffed that I do not wear a hijab, something that fits into their stereotype of a Muslim. ‘NationalistHindu’Twitterhandlesliftpicturesof mefrommyInstagramaccountinevening dresses in Goa and insist that ‘loose’ Muslim women like me are not to be trusted with their views.

My colleagues can argue and put their point of view across on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and on the Ram Mandir debate but I cannot, for it makes me communal and gives them, the bigots, the license to inundate my timeline with hate. What the ha te-mongers do not understand, and I hope they get this straight for the last time: I am not going anywhere, I am here to stay.