We were targeted for being Muslim women and being vocal on social media, say women who were ‘sold’ online on a mobile application whose name uses a derogatory term for Muslim women.
Last week, the Delhi Police Cyber Cell registered an FIR against the app for sharing images of the women without their consent. It also sent a notice to the web platform that hosted the app.
“A friend sent me a tweet last week with a link to an app that was conducting an online sale of Muslim women. I clicked on the link, which took me to the homepage with a message that read ‘find your [derogatory term]’. When I clicked on that message, a picture of a woman would appear describing it as the deal of the day. That’s how I found my picture there as well as pictures of some of my friends,” says Hana Mohsin Khan, a commercial pilot. She counted at least 83 images on the portal.
“Accompanying the picture was a button that would allow you to share it, implying that men could share me among themselves. It was quite disgusting.
App booked for using pics of women without consent
Muslim women are easy prey for online hatred and such incidents are all too common, they say. To Ms. Khan’s surprise, an innocuous post from her on Twitter last year on her love for flying, too, had invited hatred and vitriol.
“For some this may be a new experience, but I have been a target for nearly a year,” says Sania Ahmad, a 34-year-old journalist, whose picture too was posted on the mobile application. “I called out a few Twitter accounts last year for auctioning pictures of Pakistani women. Ever since, the owner of the account and his minions have been hounding me, running polls and bidding on me as well as issuing gangrape threats to me,” Ms. Ahmad says. She and others urge that the impunity enjoyed by the abusers must end, else the harassment will only worsen.
In May, around Id, Hasiba Amin was similarly ‘auctioned’ on Twitter. “Bids were called for me, starting from $1, then there were people who placed their bids using my picture and I was ‘sold’ for 77 paise,” she says. Though she has filed an FIR, there is yet to be any action. “
“I think it is very obvious that the reason this has happened to any of us is because we are Muslim women and most of us are vocal. It is a combination of misogyny and Islamophobia. There is an image of Muslim women of being oppressed, sitting in their houses and not allowed to speak. But this image has been shattered through different protests led by Muslim women and that is why they are coming after us,” Ms Amin fears.
