Muslim women in India display the same diversity as Muslim men, with variations based on caste, class, and region, just as Hindu women do. However, one shared experience for all Indian Muslim women today is their manipulation as political pawns by the Sangh Parivar. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government criminalized triple talaq in 2019 and there have been recent controversies surrounding the disallowance of hijab in educational institutions in Karnataka. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speeches during the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh, portrayed himself as the savior of Muslim women, claiming that his party rescued them from Muslim patriarchy. This irony was not lost on those familiar with history, particularly the Muslim community, which suffered during the Gujarat pogrom in 2002, where Muslim women were specifically targeted. The impact of these riots continues to affect the post-2002 generation, despite their lack of memory of the event. Since 2014, when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance came to power, Muslim men have faced criminalization and harassment from both the state apparatus and non-state elements of the Sangh Parivar. The current dispensation oversaw the Delhi riots of 2020 and numerous cow protection-related lynchings, while random acts of violence against Muslims persist. These attacks have forced some Muslims to hide their religious identity, while others assert it through the freedom of expression and the freedom to practice religion. Young educated Muslim women, in particular, have chosen to wear the hijab as an assertion of their rights. In July 2021, an open source app called ‘Sulli Deals’ on the GitHub platform targeted these Muslim women by auctioning their pictures without consent. The intention was to humiliate and degrade them. Activists, concerned citizens, and the Editors’ Guild of India condemned the act, calling for equal citizenship and political participation for Muslim women. The app was shut down by GitHub but reappeared months later as ‘Bulli Bai’, featuring the names of over 100 Muslim women. Legal actions were taken against the individuals behind the app. The Delhi High Court Women Lawyers Forum urged the Chief Justice of India to prohibit such online auctions, emphasizing that inaction in the ‘Sulli Deals’ case emboldened the culprits. Several individuals involved in the app were arrested, including the alleged mastermind. The manipulation and harassment faced by Muslim women, both online and offline, highlight the persistent misogyny and discrimination against them.
Targeting Muslim Women: Analyzing Right Wing Strategies to Oppress
