A collective of survivors, concerned citizens, civil society members and lawyers, has written to the Chief Justice of India requesting the registration of a Suo Motu petition in regard to the unconstitutional, illegal and misogynistic targeting of Muslim women through the Sulli Deals and Bulli Bai Apps.
The application/website was publicly released on the 1st of January 2022. Hundreds of Muslim women were listed for ‘auction’ on the app. The women listed, include journalists, writers and activists, vocal on social media and elsewhere against the atrocities on Muslims in the country. An attempt was made to sell Muslim women’s bodies in complete violation of their privacy, bodily autonomy and dignity.
Several complaints have been filed by the survivors against the makers of this App, in Delhi and Mumbai to name a few. It is critical to note that this was the second time Muslim women were targetted in less than a year and must be seen as hate crimes against the Muslim community in India.
While the Mumbai Police and Delhi Police have made arrests in regard to both BulliBai App and Sulli Deals, there is reason to believe that there is a much wider network at play here and that a thorough investigation is required to get to the bottom of this. The police as of now are focused on these individual arrests and we urge that cognisance must be of the larger network involved.
Four Thousand four hundred and sixty three (4463) people from across the country including Kavita Srivastava (People’s Union for Civil Liberties), Teesta Setalvad (CJP), Dr. S. Q. R. Ilyas (Welfare Party of India), Sharjeel Usmani, Saba Dewan, Dr. Amar Jesani, Clifton D’ Rozario (All India Lawyers Association for Justice), Vani Subramanian (Independent Filmmaker), Hasina Khan (Bebaak Collective), Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan (Ex-Chair, Delhi Minorities Commission/The Milli Gazette), Annie Raja (NFIW), Aditya Menon, Meera Sanghamitra (National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)), InSAF India- International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India, Angana Chatterji (University of California, Berkeley), Zakia Soman (BMMA) and Shamseer Ibrahim (National President, Fraternity Movement); have signed on this open letter to the Supreme Court demanding that the Supreme Court takes cognisance of the matter to ensure a comprehensive and timely investigation, compensation to the survivors and steps to be taken to ensure that such an incident does not happen again. Given the trauma of systematic Islamophobia and sexual violence, adequate institutional mental health support must be given to the survivors.
Mohammad Salman Ahmad, National President, Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), who is one of the signatories to the open letter, appealed to the judiciary to take swift action in response to this targeting of Muslim Women. “At a time when there is a growing climate of hatred and incitement for Hindu youth to engage in violence against the Muslim community in India, there is a special responsibility on the judiciary to show zero tolerance to hate and especially to crack down on this kind of organised intimidation, silencing and insult of vocal Muslim Women.”
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