Title

4th July Muslim women Auctioned

By Aditi
2507aditimunot@gmail.com

Slide 1
What Exactly happened?

 On the night of July 4,mobile phones of more than

80 Muslim Women flooded with messages,
informing them that they had been ‘put up for sale’
on a fake online auction.
 Photographs of more than 80 Muslim women,
including students, activists and journalists, had
been uploaded on an app called “Sulli deals”
without their knowledge.
 “Sulli” is a derogatory term used for Muslim
women in India.The repulsive app came to light
when these men started sharing their ‘deal of the
day’ on Twitter.
Slide 2
What victims said!?

 One victim said that its not just patriarchy,

misogyny and rape culture. It is all three coupled
with Islamophobia.
 “I don’t think I would ever shut up because of this.”
Stated by AFREEN FATIMA, STUDENT ACTIVIST
 Nabiya said she was being targeted because of her
religion.
 Thousands of miles away in New York, 25-year-old
Hiba Beg shattered with this Inhumanity act when
she discovered her profile was also up for virtual
auction on “Sulli deals”.
“Feelings of dehumanisation and defeat”, said Beg.

Slide 3
What happened Next?
 Hana Mohsin Khan, a commercial pilot
whose name was on the list, filed Police
complaint.
“I’m resolute and firm in getting these cowards
to pay for what they have done,” she wrote on
Twitter, adding a copy of the FIR.

 She who also featured on “Sulli Deals”, but

then she created a WhatsApp group titled
“Solidarity”, which includes over 20 of the
targeted women.
She says the support of all these women will
keep her going.
“We are all supporting each other,” she told
Media. “We are all working together; we
hardly sleep. We will not shut up and we will
not let this go.”
Slide 4

 Stats Last January, AII said in a report that

nearly 100 female Indian politicians on
Twitter were subjected to unprecedented
levels of online abuse.

 The women were targeted not only for their

views expressed online, but also for
elements of their identities such as gender,
religion, caste and marital status, said the
report.

 Activists fear online space in India has been

becoming increasingly toxic for women in
general, and Muslim women in particular.
Slide 5
Past Incidents like this.
This all incident was so traumatizing. But this is not the
first time that Women are subject to Auction or
Muslim women have been harrassed, or threatened
with rape threats.
 Earlier in May, a YouTube channel ‘Liberal Doge
Live’ whose real identity is reportedly Ritesh Jha,
live-streamed the photos of Muslim women on the
festival of Eid.
During the live-stream, the photos of Indian Muslim
women and Pakistani women as well were sexualised
and were bidded on.
 There have been similar incidents of harassment
when Article 370, special semi-autonomous status
to the former state of Jammu & Kashmir, was
revoked in August 2019.
Slide 6
Actions taken Against it!
 Police complaint filed
On July 8, the Delhi Police registered an FIR after DCW and the
NCW 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,”
 Tanwir, a lawyer based in the capital New Delhi, believes
online platforms hosting apps like “Sulli Deals” need to have
more accountability regarding hate speech and abuse.
“Any platform or website – open source or otherwise – has
ethical and legal responsibility not to allow such activities. This
basically tantamounts to abetting and promoting illegal
trafficking in women.”
 GitHub - the web platform that hosted the open source app
- shut it down quickly following complaints. "We suspended
user accounts following the investigation of reports of such
activity, all of which violate our policies," the company said
in a statement.