‘AUCTION’ ANGER: MUSLIM WOMEN FACE RACIST TROLLING
WE’RE TREATED LIKE SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS, SAY ‘SULLI’ INCIDENT VICTIMS
MUSLIM women in India who found themselves listed for “auction” on a controversial site earlier this month, have spoken about how the incident has taken a toll on their mental health as they constantly fear for their safety.
Dozens of Muslim women were being offered for sale in fake “auctions” online without their knowledge, it emerged last week. Images of more than 80 women were reportedly uploaded in recent weeks to GitHub, an open software development platform, under the title “Sulli deal of the day”.
“Sulli” is a derogatory slang word for Muslim women.
Mumbai-based script writer Saniya Sayed, who discovered her picture was on the site, told Eastern Eye it was a well-organised campaign directed at Muslim women.
“It is not just a cybercrime, but an expression of the pathological misogyny rooted in communal hate. Their targets were not just accounts of Muslim women with large followers, who assert themselves against the ideology of Hindutva, but also accounts of those Muslim women who prefer being apolitical,” Saniya said.
Speaking of her shock, she said she felt “exposed and unsafe” when she found out her image was used online.
“Sexual harassment and misogyny are unfortunately usual occurrences in the life of women on social media, but in this particular instance, the sexual harassment faced by us is not just because we are women but the fact that we are Muslim women – who can be treated like second-class citizens in our own country and sold like cattle with impunity. It is a hate crime and should be treated as such,” Saniya added.
Delhi police has filed charges, although they are against unknown persons because the authorities do not know the identity of the perpetrators.
Eastern Eye spoke to two other women whose profiles were listed on the site. New Delhi-based college student Afreen Fatima Ali and Tazeen Syed in Dubai said they were “horrified” when they found their pictures on “Sulli deal of the day”.
All three women described how being a Muslim woman in India was not easy. Apart from “regular” gender abuse, they are also attacked for their faith, their choice of wearing a hijab and also speaking out. And the online attacks have now escalated.
“Online trolling definitely is more triggering,” said Tazeen, who works in the sports industry and is also an advocate of women in the workplace.
“People might not say these things to your face, but (being) behind troll accounts, they tend to get even more confidence. The fact that these accounts are not blocked or taken down in time does provide more ammunition to abuse women,” she added.
India’s National Commission for Women said the victims in the case included researchers, analysts, artists and journalists. Meanwhile, GitHub said it had suspended the users’ accounts, saying they violated its policies on harassment, discrimination and inciting violence.
“As a woman in general, social media can be a highly triggering place. However, as a Muslim woman, it gets worse because of the current environment being created in the country,” Tazeen said, referring to what some say is growing Islamophobia under the current government.
The Indian government has not commented on the latest scandal, but it denies being anti-Muslim.
Saniya told Eastern Eye she is “hounded by communal slurs and insults” almost every time she posts anything on social media.
“No matter how much one tries to ignore them or get on with life, they do have a triggering effect in the sense that I do start questioning my place as a citizen in India,” she said.
Asserting one’s identity as a Muslim to talk about issues facing the community in India is “nothing less than a social crime” and brings “unimaginable hatred”, Saniya revealed. The hatred is now becoming more and more evident, she added.
“Not that it wasn’t there before, but it was subtle and shrouded behind a veil of tolerance. It is all out in the open now – nothing but naked hate and all because I am a Muslim who wants nothing but the rights my country’s constitution guarantees me.”
Afreen, whose father is as-yet unaware of what she has gone through lately, said this was not an isolated incident. Muslim women routinely face vile abuse online where men sometimes also add them to unsolicited WhatsApp groups and even morph their pictures, she claimed.
“I receive rape threats online,” said the college student, who also raises funds for underprivileged people through her social media accounts.
A similar incident was reported recently when YouTube LIVE shared pictures of Muslim women, mostly from Pakistan, in an abusive and sexualised video.
The women believed both the incidents could be linked as “many of these accounts follow each other”.
Asked if they had reconsidered their presence on social media, Saniya said she thought about deleting her accounts, but decided to remain active online.
“The entire purpose of this disgusting, dastardly campaign was to subdue and suppress our voices and stop us from asserting our identity as Muslim women. I was not going to give them the satisfaction of having succeeded in doing that,” she said.
Tazeen added that no matter what they do, “they (online trolls) can’t be found or punished”, which is “scary and dangerous”.
“Today it happened online; tomorrow, this could be physical harm to all of us.”
The women also said the hate and objectification of Muslim women on social media is ignored by the media as well as “upper-class liberal voices whose silence in such matters is deafening”.
“They conduct debates on ‘love jihad’ which last for days – targeting inter-religious marriages and relationships – but something like this conveniently escapes their attention,” said Saniya.
“The bigger problem here is that similar incidents keep happening, but there is no outrage. Somewhere people have accepted this as ‘normal’ in India,” added Tazeen.