What is it?
The Bulli Bai app was created at a time when the entire world was already grappling with
socio-economic and psychological problems. Three engineering students devised an online code that put a price on Muslim women’s dignity by posting their pictures alongside degrading text and auctioning them. Although no actual sale occurred, the intention of humiliating and harassing prominent career women was achieved. This is not the first time that Muslim women have been "auctioned" online in an attempt to harass them. In July of last year, the software and web page "Sulli Deals" constructed accounts of over 80 Muslim women based on images they posted to the internet and branded them as "deals of the day." In all cases, there was no actual sale, but the goal was to demean and humiliate Muslim women, many of whom have disavowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's increasing wave of Hindu nationalism. Sulli is a disparaging Hindi slang epithet for Muslim women used by right-wing Hindu trolls, while bulli is equally insulting.
After countless women who appeared in the false auction revealed screenshots and comments on social media, the public was horrified and enraged. According to a 2018 Amnesty International research on virtual abuse in India, the more assertive a woman was, the more probable she was to be targeted; this was especially true for women from religious minorities and lower castes. Critics claim that given India's divisive political landscape, trolling targeting Muslim women has gotten rampant in past years.
Radicalization
However, radicalization and polarisation have always underscored popular media scandals of this sort. Not only does the app humiliate women and treat them as ‘less than, but it also singularly targets working women. This suggests a discouragement for women to pursue a career, through intimidation and threat to their safety and reputation. By employing nefarious means, such actions exploit both gender and religion to disadvantage the so-called ‘weaker section’. Financial independence is put in jeopardy by restricting the social mobility of women, thus maintaining the status quo of a girl being a daughter before she is a wife. This trivializes the innate dignity of the woman, evaluating her only in relation to the men in her life.
-GirlUp Constitution
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