Thursday, March 28

Arrests After Muslim Activists Put Up For Sale At Fake Auction In India | India


Indian police arrested a woman accused of organizing a bogus online auction in which hundreds of prominent Muslim women were put up “for sale” on a website.

There were shockwaves of anger and disgust in India after it emerged that a website calling itself Bulli Bai, an offensive term for Muslims, had organized a mock auction of more than 100 Muslim women, including journalists, academics, activists, academics and artists. , where they were to be “sold” as servants for negligible sums.

Although no actual transactions took place, Bulli Bai’s website featured photos of the women, many taken from their social media and manipulated. A large number of the targeted women have openly criticized the government of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and many said the purpose of the site was to humiliate and silence Muslim women who spoke openly and to help divide India along lines. sectarian.

It is the second recent attack in which Muslim women in India have been harassed by being “sold” online, and it follows a similar bogus auction conducted online last July. Although several police complaints were filed in that case, no one has been arrested.

Bulli Bai’s website was taken down within 24 hours, and victims in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad made several complaints to the police. On Tuesday, Mumbai police said they had arrested two people in connection with the website’s creation, including a woman in Uttarakhand, who is the main defendant, and a male engineering student in Bangalore.

Sayema ​​Rahman, a popular radio DJ, discovered she was among those featured on the website when a journalist sent her a screenshot of her name and face.

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“The most shocking part is that it doesn’t surprise me anymore because this has been happening relentlessly to women for quite some time, especially with this community angle,” Rahman said. It is Islamophobia along with misogyny. I was attacked, and many other women were attacked, because we are the vocal voices, we are the liberated voices and they want to silence us by commercializing us, humiliating us and trying to scare us ”.

Rahman said the victims were still waiting for the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, or the central government, particularly the Interior Ministry and the Women’s Ministry, to condemn the Bulli Bai website. “This is a massive national scandal, but we have yet to hear a word from the central government condemning this or offering guarantees, and that is very disturbing and very disconcerting for the safety of women in this country,” she said.

Speaking to The Guardian, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the IT minister, said his department’s investigative unit had examined the website and those responsible would be prosecuted. “The Government of India is committed to ensuring that the Internet is open, reliable and secure for all Indians. We take this responsibility very seriously, ”he said.

Khalida Parveen, 67, a veteran activist, was also among the women targeted. On Monday, he filed a police complaint in his hometown of Hyderabad against the perpetrators and the GitHub platform that had facilitated the site.

A GitHub spokesperson said it had deleted the user account that had hosted the website and would cooperate with investigating authorities.

Parveen, in her police report, asked that the perpetrators be accused of “harassing me, horribly sexualizing me, who am an older person, and criticizing me, my character and the community to which I belong” and also to be charged with human trafficking.

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She said she had been “sad and angry” when she found out she was among those attacked. “What kind of mindset do these people have that they sell to me, an elderly woman, and other women online?” Parveen asked. “They are trying to silence our voices on social media. We see again how under this government, Muslim women are targets. “

Parveen said she felt the auction was aimed at punishing prominent Muslim voices, including journalists and activists, who had criticized anti-Muslim hate speech, such as a recent call from Hindu religious leaders, during a religious event in the city. Hindu saint of Haridwar. in Uttarakhand, for a genocide of Muslims in India.

“Many of us were on social media, drawing international attention to this hate speech and demanding that police cases be brought against the perpetrators,” he said. “So we are all up for sale at this auction. I think it’s an attempt to scare us, to make us fearful to raise our voices to keep us quiet. But we are all fighting this together, we will be aggressive for justice ”.


www.theguardian.com

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