{"id":47288,"date":"2022-01-02T18:24:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-02T18:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47288"},"modified":"2022-01-02T18:24:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T18:24:26","slug":"bulli-bai-indias-muslim-women-again-listed-on-app-for-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47288","title":{"rendered":"Bulli Bai: India\u2019s Muslim women again listed on app for \u2018auction\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New Delhi, India<\/strong> \u2013 On January 1, Quratulain Rehbar, a journalist from Indian-administered Kashmir, woke up to see herself listed for an \u201conline auction\u201d. Her photograph was sourced without her permission and uploaded on an app for \u201csale\u201d.<\/p>\n

She was not alone.<\/p>\n

Photographs of more than 100 Muslim women, including prominent actress Shabana Azami, wife of a sitting judge of Delhi High Court, multiple journalists, activists and politicians were displayed on the app for auction as \u201cBulli Bai\u201d of the day.<\/p>\n

Even Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai was not spared by the perpetrators.<\/p>\n

After last July\u2019s \u201cSulli Deals<\/a>\u201c, in which nearly 80 Muslim women were put up \u201cfor sale\u201d, \u201cBulli Bai\u201d was the second such attempt in less than a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth \u2018Bulli\u2019 and \u2018Sulli\u2019 are derogatory words used for Muslim women in local slang. However, this time the Punjabi language was used in the \u2018Bulli Bai\u2019 interface along with English,\u201d journalist Mohammad Zubair, who works for fact-checking website AltNews, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Rehbar, who had previously reported on the \u201cSulli Deals\u201d auction in July last year, told Al Jazeera she was shocked to see her photograph on the app.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw my photograph, my throat got heavy, I had goosebumps on my arms and I was numb. It was shocking and humiliating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n

Last year I wrote about how muslim women’s pictures were auctioned online where women felt haunted and humiliated. Today, after a year seeing my own picture in another trend #bullideals<\/a>, besides other muslim womens’, makes me feel utmost disgusting. https:\/\/t.co\/AE0N1sInE2<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Quratulain Rehbar (@ainulrhbr) January 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While there was no real sale involved, the online application \u2013 created on Microsoft-owned open software development site GitHub \u2013 was, according to Rehbar, intended \u201cto degrade and humiliate vocal Muslim women\u201d.<\/p>\n

The app was taken down on Saturday, with victims saying the interface of the GitHub extension on \u201cBulli Bai\u201d was strikingly similar to the one used by \u201cSulli Deals\u201d.<\/p>\n

By Saturday evening, dozens of other Muslim women began posting their shock and outrage on social media after seeing their photographs and details on the app.<\/p>\n

Among them was Ismat Ara, a journalist in the capital, New Delhi.<\/p>\n

Ara filed a complaint on Saturday with the Delhi Police against \u201cunknown people\u201d for harassing and insulting Muslim women on social media \u201cusing doctored pictures in unacceptable and lewd context\u201d.<\/p>\n

Based on her complaint, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered by Delhi Cyber Police on Sunday, invoking various sections of the Indian Penal Code that pertain to promoting enmity on grounds of religion, threatening national integration and sexual harassment of women.<\/p>\n

\n

UPDATE: An FIR has been registered by Cyber Police (South East Delhi) on the basis of my complaint with IPC sections 153A (Promoting enmity on grounds of religion etc), 153B (Imputations prejudicial to national-integration), 354A & 509 for sexual harassment. #BulliDeals<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/dJ1mspyiGI<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ismat Ara (@IsmatAraa) January 2, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Following another complaint by Sidrah, whose photo also appeared on the app, a police case was also registered in India\u2019s financial capital Mumbai against various Twitter handles and the \u201cBulli Bai\u201d app developers.<\/p>\n

However, Ara said she is not hopeful regarding the police investigation, her fears stemming from the fact that the probe in \u201cSulli Deals\u201d has seen no arrests made even after six months.<\/p>\n

Fatima Zohra Khan, a lawyer based in Mumbai whose name figured in both \u201cSulli\u201d and \u201cBulli Bai\u201d deals, had also filed a complaint with Mumbai police last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got no response from Twitter, GitHub and Go-Daddy (web hosting company) despite Mumbai Police themselves requesting them to reveal data. These websites refuse to share information unless a court warrant is produced,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Police officials in New Delhi and Mumbai did not respond to Al Jazeera\u2019s queries on the latest \u201cauction\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

I have been trying to gather some strength to write something about #BulliDeals<\/a>. Just when I thought I had left the trauma of #SulliDeals<\/a> behind me, it came to haunt us(me along with more than 112 Muslims Women) again with an updated version, as a new year present. 1\/6<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nabiya Khan | \u0646\u0628\u06cc\u06c1 \u062e\u0627\u0646 (@NabiyaKhan11) January 2, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt is sad to see how these hate-mongers are licensed to target Muslim women without any fear. This is not the first time such an auction has taken place,\u201d said Ara.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women who have been targeted are vocal women who raise issues of Muslims on social media. It is a clear conspiracy to shut these Muslim women because we challenge the Hindu right-wing online against their hate crimes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

During the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr last year, a YouTube channel named \u201cLiberal Doge\u201d, shared pictures of Pakistani women in a sexualised video, titled \u201cEid Special\u201d. It was removed by the company after outrage.<\/p>\n

Weeks after the incident, Muslim women were \u201cauctioned\u201d on Twitter under the \u201cSulli Deals\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

The collective anger of Muslim women you’re witnessing on your timelines today comes from a place of deep anguish\u2013 of being exoticised, demonised, and patronised, all at once. Experiences ranging from being constantly talked down upon, to being sold online. #BulliDeals<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Fatima Khan (@khanthefatima) January 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Several Indian parliamentarians have raised the matter with the government, including Priyanka Chaturvedi, based in the western state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai.<\/p>\n

After her tweet calling out India\u2019s IT minister to take \u201cstern action\u201d against \u201cmisogynistic and communal targeting of women\u201d, the minister said GitHub had blocked the user responsible for hosting the site and the \u201cpolice authorities are coordinating further action\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice complaints were registered during the time of \u2018Sulli deals\u2019. However, no action was taken. That is the reason why these people feel emboldened,\u201d Chaturvedi told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\n

There are many Muslim names,including mine,in the obnoxious #BulliDeals<\/a> , same as #SulliDeals<\/a>
Even Najeeb’s mother has not been spared. It’s a reflection on India’s broken justice system, a dilapidated law n order arrangement. Are we becoming the most unsafe country for women?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Sayema (@_sayema) January 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Rehbar said it was \u201cparticularly alarming\u201d for Muslim women who are \u201cfighting patriarchy and restrictions\u201d on one hand and \u201cfacing such harassment\u201d on the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften women are asked to remove their pictures from social media and hide. After such attempts to harass Muslim women, it will be difficult for many women to take a stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rana Ayyub, a Mumbai-based columnist with The Washington Post, told Al Jazeera people are \u201chailing targeted harassment of women without being identified by law\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Bulli Bai\u2019 takes hate crimes in India to another dangerous level where Muslim women are being virtually violated and made a free-for-all for a bigoted mob,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese auctions of women from the minority communities display the moral degradation of India and its constitutional values.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Delhi, India \u2013 On January 1, Quratulain Rehbar, a journalist from Indian-administered Kashmir, woke up to see herself listed for an \u201conline auction\u201d. Her photograph was sourced without her permission and uploaded on an app for \u201csale\u201d. She was not alone. Photographs of more than 100 Muslim women, including prominent actress Shabana Azami, wife…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}