Bulli Bai presents photos of Muslim figures in India with harassing stories

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW DELHI – When a New Delhi reporter clicked the “download” option of an image sent on WhatsApp on New Year’s Day early in the morning, he thought he was acted as a New Year’s greeting. But suddenly her heart skipped a beat because it turned out to be her photo with a derogatory caption that offered it for sale as “l ‘deal of the day’.

Photos of 100 other Muslim women have also been exposed in a fake auction on a new app called Bulli Bai. This app clearly aims to harass women, especially Muslim women. For the journalist, this is a sad repeat of what happened six months ago when her name and 80 other Muslim women were auctioned off on another app called Sulli Deals.

Their names and photos were uploaded without the consent of the photo owner. Degrading comments were also placed next to the photos to embarrass them.

“I wanted to start the year with hope, but it’s surprising that someone on the last day of the year is sitting around doing this to humiliate us,” the journalist, who did not identify himself, told the AFP. local media, cited by South China. Morning Post page, Wednesday (05/05/2020). 1).

The Sulli Deals app was used last year, while the most recent is called Bulli Bai. From the name alone, the app conveys its meaning. Bulli Bai is a play on words (slang) which refers to the genitals.

Women’s rights activists and some opposition politicians have expressed outrage at the heinous act of humiliating Muslim women by discussing prices and selling them in vulgar language. They blamed this latest crime on the failure of Indian police to make any arrests after the ‘auction’ which took place in July last year.

Auctions target Bollywood artists

In a statement released on Monday this week, the Delhi Women’s Commission said this callous attitude had made perpetrators brave to continue selling women and girls online. The women presented at this auction are between 16 and over 70 years old.

Almost all of them are journalists, academics or social activists. They include Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi. In short, the targets of harassment are women who are outspoken and outspoken, often active on social media and criticizing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for an agenda described as fueling polarization between the various ethnicities and religions of the country. India.

The women who are the target of the auction in line and the many non-Muslim women critics of the government, regularly ridiculed in a misogynistic way by a group of people who are staunch supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. An administrator in Rajasthan of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, an organization fighting for Muslim women’s rights, Nishat Hussain, said he was deeply saddened to see what his Hindu brothers were doing.