Indian Muslim women put on sale in ‘fake auction’

PICTURES of more than 80 Muslim women from India were uploaded in recent weeks on an online platform to be sold off in fake “auctions” without their knowledge, generating widespread condemnation and severe backlash among communities.

According to media reports, dozens of photographs were put up on GitHub, which is an open software development platform, under the title “Sulli deal of the day.” “Sulli” is derogatory slang used by right-wing Hindus for Muslim women. The pictures of activists, students and journalists could be seen at the fake auction.

“That night, I didn’t reply to the people who messaged me. I just logged out of my Twitter. I didn’t have the energy to respond,” Afreen Fatima told Qatar-based media outlet Al-Jazeera after she found out on July 4 that her picture has been also placed under “deal of the day.”

“I was just so disturbed; I couldn’t sleep,” she said, adding that it came right away after a Hindu far-right man called for the abduction of Muslim women in Pataudi, near New Delhi.

Another victim Hiba Beg from New York said she discovered her picture on the app as she had just returned from enjoying Independence Day celebrations in the city. Beg said she suffered from “feelings of dehumanisation and defeat.”

Following complaints and outcry, GitHub took it down. “We suspended user accounts following the investigation of reports of such activity, all of which violate our policies,” a GitHub spokesperson told Al-Jazeera. “GitHub has longstanding policies against content and conduct involving harassment, discrimination, and inciting violence.”

Indian police launched an investigation over the sale of dozens of Muslim women on the platform in a case that victims say illustrates the growing Islamophobia across the country.

Hana Mohsin Khan, an airline pilot, was alerted last week by a friend who directed her to a link that led to a gallery of images of women.

“The fourth picture was mine. They were literally auctioning me as their slave for the day,” Khan told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “It sends chills down my spine. From that day till today, I am just in a constant state of anger,” she said.

Delhi police have filed charges – but against unknown persons, because they do not know the identity of the perpetrators.

Many among India’s 170 million Muslims say they feel like second-class citizens since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. A string of lynchings of Muslims by Hindu mobs over socalled cow protection – a sacred animal for many Hindus – and other hate crimes have sown fear and despair in the community.