Maliha Fatema Zakir comments on the repeated online attacks via ‘Sulli Deals’ and ‘Bulli Bai’ apps whereby Muslim women were put on ‘auction’, calls them the worst manifestation of hate, demands stringent action against the perpetrators, and urges citizens to raise their voice against this willing suspension of human dignity and honour of women.
The recent, ‘Sulli Deals: Auction of Muslim Women’ was the worst manifestation of hate which had its roots in religious bigotry, prejudices born out of age-old anti-Muslim plank. Such incidents just reflect the depraved mentality where people try to suppress minorities by unlawful and criminal methods.
The ‘Sulli Deal’ app had photographs of more than 80 Muslim women, including students, activists and journalists, without their knowledge. A YouTube channel run by ‘Liberal Doge Live’, reportedly a man by the name of Ritesh Jha, ran an ‘Eid Special’ – a ‘live auction’ of Muslim women from India and Pakistan.
Some of the victims reported their terrible accounts on the social media. Two FIRs were filed by the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police in the ‘Sulli Deals’ incident last year, but no concrete action has been taken against the perpetrators so far. People raised their voice against it just for about a while and the FIRs were swept under the carpet. And now what’s happened is what we feared the most. After just six months of utter silence when the media, police and the entire system of our country looked the other way, another app named ‘Bulli Bai’ hit the digital world on January 1.
Like ‘Sulli Deals’, the ‘Bulli Bai’ is also hosted on GitHub. The uploading of pictures on the ‘Bulli Bai’ app was similar to that of the ‘Sulli Deals’ uploading in July last year. The ‘Bulli Bai’ app worked just the same way as ‘Sulli Deals’ did. It contained uploaded pictures of women and below them was a demeaning statement “Your Bulli Bai of the Day” similar to the statement “Your Sulli Deals of the Day” used in the ‘Sulli Deals’ app.
The matter came to light after Ismat Ara, a journalist working with The Wire, became a ‘Bulli Bai’ target who happened to inform about her bad start of the New Year 2022. “It is very sad that as a Muslim woman you have to start your new year with this sense of fear and disgust. Of course it goes without saying that I am not the only one being targeted in this new version of #sullideals,” she tweeted.
In her complaint, she said, “The term ‘Bulli Bai’ itself seems disrespectful and the content of this website/portal (bullibai.github.io) is clearly aimed at insulting Muslim women as the derogatory term ‘Bulli’ is used exclusively for Muslim women and the entire website seems to have been designed with the intent of embarrassing and insulting Muslim women.”
She alleged that the portal had displayed her doctored picture “in an improper, unacceptable and clearly lewd context.”
This particular incident should not be viewed in isolation. It is rooted in a wider extremist agenda of using sexual violence against Muslim women for controlling their religious identity and spreading Islamophobia. The women who were listed in the ‘Sulli Deals’ app were mostly established, assertive and educated Muslim women. This sort of online abuse was an attempt at seizing the already limited space they have access to; it was meant to demean and intimidate them, as is the culture in hyper masculine societies.
Muslim women have already been facing the consequences of modernity which attacks their rights and most important hijab, which the western world thinks takes away their freedom; but it’s not because of hijab, it’s because of these (like ‘Sulli Deals’) agendas created against them.
The limits imposed on Muslim women by the cultural, social, economic and political systems extend to their agency being curtailed. Now, apart from thinking about Muslim women, it can happen with anyone. Priyanka Chaturvedi, flagging concerns about the lack of safe cyberspace for women, said, “The misuse of social and digital media to harass and attack the dignity of a woman is disheartening. In a country where women are struggling with gender bias, these incidents yet again lay bare the protection and safety of women, especially in cyberspace.”
On the ‘liberal doge’ incident, people commented that it’s his right to freedom of speech and defended ‘liberal doge’. But now, I ask them: don’t these women, who as active journalists, activists or professionals are raising their voice against hate and injustice, have the freedom of speech that they have been just shut up by an app. Muslim men are lynched, Muslim women are harassed and auctioned online. When will this end? It’s not just a cybercrime. It’s the symptom of a disease that has been spreading rather fast with the effort of some groups to scare and stop the entry of Muslim women in the social and political spheres.
Times like these in our country wherein a journalist was booked under the National Security Act (NSA) for posting a Facebook comment that ‘cow urine and dung do not cure Covid19’, auctioning of humans that too of women of a particular religion is a much more serious crime; so the perpetrators deserve to be jailed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
This reflects the mindset of the people in the saddle who are responsible for maintaining law and order equally among all citizens irrespective of their castes, creeds and religions.
If person X says it’s raining and if person Y says it’s dry, is the journalists’ job to report both sides equally? Instead, it’s their job to look up at the sky and find out who’s speaking the truth. This addresses the debate of neutrality in media. But in the case of willing harassments of women, the media didn’t maintain that neutrality.
Allah says in the Qur’ān (4:135): “O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives.”
So yes, we would and we have to stand against this injustice.
According to Yasmin Mogahed, “This world cannot break you unless you give it permission. And it cannot own you unless you give it the keys.” So, somewhat in the corner of guilts, we to whom a protection, covering or hijab is gifted do not properly utilise it. Exposing ourselves beyond the limits on social media platforms is also a minor reason. I am not telling to cover yourself because of beasts around but in order to please Allah The Almighty.
News reports of conspiracy theory behind ‘Sulli Deals’ or ‘Bulli Bai’ in our land, which they call “Bharat Mata,” should be a matter of serious concern for one and all and especially for those at the helm of implementing the rule of law as well as those trying to build an inclusive society.
We say India is progressing but find it is taking us back to the olden days wherein women had been treated as slaves. In today’s world where Internet has become the main hub for expertise, it has not been left safe for women because actions like ‘Sulli Deals’ and ‘Bulli Bai’ hurdle the progress of women. It restricts their freedom of speech, freedom of doing anything right and posting it. Where are the feminists and organisations working for women empowerment, keeping criminal silence on this willing insult of women?
Every now and then we hear rhetoric of women safety, women empowerment, etc. but there is no meaning to it until it gets implemented. If the government wouldn’t have been quiet earlier, the hands behind it wouldn’t have the audacity to do it once again. Being a woman, I understand that we are very sensitive about our privacy. Even if a woman posts her photograph on the internet, it’s on her own consent but it doesn’t permit others to misuse or even share it in other ways. We must have this kind of freedom in this modern era of technology usage. But here we are still suffering from these so inhuman crimes.
The minds behind these incidents thought to demotivate assertive women, especially Muslim women who are struggling through a lot of difficulties to achieve their goals. And now, if we don’t raise our voice against it, our developing India won’t remain the same. No woman will ever be able to pluck up the courage to face the world, improve her standards, achieve her goals or contribute to the progress and development of India. Women are already insecure about safety in the physical world and these incidents create insecurities around the virtual world too, and the negligence of the powers that be leads to complete retrogression. Lastly, I would just request everyone reading this article to contribute to putting an end to humiliation of women around us.