New Delhi, India – On January 1, Quratulain Rehbar, a journalist from Indian-administered Kashmir, woke as much as see herself listed for an “on-line public sale”. Her {photograph} was sourced with out her permission and uploaded on an app for “sale”.
She was not alone.
Pictures of greater than 100 Muslim girls, together with distinguished actress Shabana Azami, spouse of a sitting decide of Delhi Excessive Courtroom, a number of journalists, activists and politicians have been displayed on the app for public sale as “Bulli Bai” of the day.
Even Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai was not spared by the perpetrators.
After final July’s “Sulli Offers“, by which almost 80 Muslim girls have been put up “on the market”, “Bulli Bai” was the second such try in lower than a 12 months.
“Each ‘Bulli’ and ‘Sulli’ are derogatory phrases used for Muslim girls in native slang. Nonetheless, this time the Punjabi language was used within the ‘Bulli Bai’ interface together with English,” journalist Mohammad Zubair, who works for fact-checking web site AltNews, informed Al Jazeera.
Rehbar, who had beforehand reported on the “Sulli Offers” public sale in July final 12 months, informed Al Jazeera she was shocked to see her {photograph} on the app.
“After I noticed my {photograph}, my throat received heavy, I had goosebumps on my arms and I used to be numb. It was stunning and humiliating,” she mentioned.
Final 12 months I wrote about how muslim girls’s photos have been auctioned on-line the place girls felt haunted and humiliated. Right this moment, after a 12 months seeing my very own image in one other pattern #bullideals, moreover different muslim womens’, makes me really feel utmost disgusting. https://t.co/AE0N1sInE2
— Quratulain Rehbar (@ainulrhbr) January 1, 2022
Whereas there was no actual sale concerned, the net utility – created on Microsoft-owned open software program growth web site GitHub – was, in accordance with Rehbar, meant “to degrade and humiliate vocal Muslim girls”.
The app was taken down on Saturday, with victims saying the interface of the GitHub extension on “Bulli Bai” was strikingly much like the one utilized by “Sulli Offers”.
By Saturday night, dozens of different Muslim girls started posting their shock and outrage on social media after seeing their images and particulars on the app.
Amongst them was Ismat Ara, a journalist within the capital, New Delhi.
Ara filed a grievance on Saturday with the Delhi Police towards “unknown folks” for harassing and insulting Muslim girls on social media “utilizing doctored photos in unacceptable and lewd context”.
Primarily based on her grievance, a First Data Report (FIR) was registered by Delhi Cyber Police on Sunday, invoking varied sections of the Indian Penal Code that pertain to selling enmity on grounds of faith, threatening nationwide integration and sexual harassment of girls.
UPDATE: An FIR has been registered by Cyber Police (South East Delhi) on the idea of my grievance with IPC sections 153A (Selling enmity on grounds of faith and so forth), 153B (Imputations prejudicial to national-integration), 354A & 509 for sexual harassment. #BulliDeals pic.twitter.com/dJ1mspyiGI
— Ismat Ara (@IsmatAraa) January 2, 2022
Following one other grievance by Sidrah, whose photograph additionally appeared on the app, a police case was additionally registered in India’s monetary capital Mumbai towards varied Twitter handles and the “Bulli Bai” app builders.
Nonetheless, Ara mentioned she just isn’t hopeful concerning the police investigation, her fears stemming from the truth that the probe in “Sulli Offers” has seen no arrests made even after six months.
Fatima Zohra Khan, a lawyer based mostly in Mumbai whose identify figured in each “Sulli” and “Bulli Bai” offers, had additionally filed a grievance with Mumbai police final 12 months.
“We received no response from Twitter, GitHub and Go-Daddy (internet hosting firm) regardless of Mumbai Police themselves requesting them to disclose information. These web sites refuse to share info except a courtroom warrant is produced,” she informed Al Jazeera.
Police officers in New Delhi and Mumbai didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s queries on the newest “public sale”.
I’ve been attempting to collect some power to write down one thing about #BulliDeals. Simply once I thought I had left the trauma of #SulliDeals behind me, it got here to hang-out us(me together with greater than 112 Muslims Ladies) once more with an up to date model, as a brand new 12 months current. 1/6
— Nabiya Khan | نبیہ خان (@NabiyaKhan11) January 2, 2022
“It’s unhappy to see how these hate-mongers are licensed to focus on Muslim girls with none concern. This isn’t the primary time such an public sale has taken place,” mentioned Ara.
“The ladies who’ve been focused are vocal girls who elevate problems with Muslims on social media. It’s a clear conspiracy to close these Muslim girls as a result of we problem the Hindu right-wing on-line towards their hate crimes,” she added.
Through the Muslim pageant of Eid al-Fitr final 12 months, a YouTube channel named “Liberal Doge”, shared photos of Pakistani girls in a sexualised video, titled “Eid Particular”. It was eliminated by the corporate after outrage.
Weeks after the incident, Muslim girls have been “auctioned” on Twitter beneath the “Sulli Offers”.
The collective anger of Muslim girls you are witnessing in your timelines immediately comes from a spot of deep anguish– of being exoticised, demonised, and patronised, abruptly. Experiences starting from being always talked down upon, to being offered on-line. #BulliDeals
— Fatima Khan (@khanthefatima) January 1, 2022
A number of Indian parliamentarians have raised the matter with the federal government, together with Priyanka Chaturvedi, based mostly within the western state of Maharashtra, dwelling to Mumbai.
After her tweet calling out India’s IT minister to take “stern motion” towards “misogynistic and communal concentrating on of girls”, the minister mentioned GitHub had blocked the person answerable for internet hosting the location and the “police authorities are coordinating additional motion”.
“Police complaints have been registered through the time of ‘Sulli offers’. Nonetheless, no motion was taken. That’s the reason why these folks really feel emboldened,” Chaturvedi informed Al Jazeera.
There are numerous Muslim names,together with mine,within the obnoxious #BulliDeals , similar as #SulliDeals
Even Najeeb’s mom has not been spared. It is a reflection on India’s damaged justice system, a dilapidated regulation n order association. Are we turning into probably the most unsafe nation for ladies?— Sayema (@_sayema) January 1, 2022
Rehbar mentioned it was “notably alarming” for Muslim girls who’re “combating patriarchy and restrictions” on one hand and “going through such harassment” on the opposite.
“Typically girls are requested to take away their photos from social media and conceal. After such makes an attempt to harass Muslim girls, it is going to be troublesome for a lot of girls to take a stand.”
Rana Ayyub, a Mumbai-based columnist with The Washington Submit, informed Al Jazeera persons are “hailing focused harassment of girls with out being recognized by regulation”.
“‘Bulli Bai’ takes hate crimes in India to a different harmful stage the place Muslim girls are being just about violated and made a free-for-all for a bigoted mob,” she mentioned.
“These auctions of girls from the minority communities show the ethical degradation of India and its constitutional values.”