Al Jazeera report has revealed how far-right extremists "systemically" abuse Muslim women in India by uploading their photoshopped pictures on obscene apps and online forums without their consent to defame them.
On the night of July 4, Afreen Fatima participated in an online forum about the persecution of Muslims in India. No sooner had she wrapped up her session than her mobile phone was flooded with messages, informing the 23-year-old student activist that she had been 'put up for sale' on a fake online auction.
And she was not alone. Photographs of more than 80 other Muslim women, including students, activists and journalists, had been uploaded on an app called "Sulli deals" without their knowledge.
On July 8, the Delhi Police registered a police complaint (first information report) after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) and the National Commission for Women called for an investigation into the matter following days of outrage largely by Muslim women online.
Delhi Police PRO Chinmay Biswal said an investigation has been launched. "Notices have been sent to GitHub to share the relevant details," Biswal told Al Jazeera.
A week after the app was discovered, no arrest has been made.
Prominent journalist and activist Rana Ayyub, who has been at the receiving end of vicious sexualised trolling for her outspoken views, said that this was and is done "systemically" to target vocal Muslim women.
"The way they [Hindu far-right groups] sexualise you is the only way they believe they can shame and silence Muslim women online. We are supposed to be 'oppressed' in their books – so they think, 'How dare we speak out for ourselves?'" Ayyub, who is a columnist for the Washington Post, told Al Jazeera.
Media professional Sania Ahmad, whose profile also appeared on the Sulli Deals app, says this sort of violence online is hardly surprising. The 34-year-old, a vocal Muslim voice on Twitter with nearly 34,000 followers, says the platform has been used to make sexualised and graphic online threats.
"It's a very sad thing, but I've gotten used to this. Last year, there was a poll running where a Hindutva account asked 'Which of the Sanias should I choose for my harem?' We kept reporting the poll, but it ran for 24 hours," Ahmad, said referring to members of the Hindu far-right.
