Victimising women: How the right wing attacks Muslim women

Muslim women in India are no more a homogenous monolith than Muslim men, and there are divisions among them along the lines of caste, class and region as there are variations among Hindu women. ‘Sulli Deals’ outrage In July 2021, an open source app called ‘Sulli Deals’ on the GitHub web platform, intending to teach these young Muslim women a lesson, was shared on Twitter. In an open letter condemning the political campaign of hate, women’s rights activists and concerned citizens said: “This is a conspiracy to target women by creating a database of those Muslim women journalists, professionals and students who were actively raising a voice on social media against right-wing Hindutva majoritarianism. The intention is to silence their political participation….We demand equal citizenship and political participation in offline and online spaces for Muslim women.” The Editors’ Guild of India also deplored the act and said, “This vile attack is symptomatic of underlying misogyny in some sections of the society, especially against Muslim women as well as those who have been outspoken critics of the current government.” The Delhi Commission for Women issued a notice to the Delhi Police after which the Cyber Cell filed an FIR under Section 354-A of the Indian Penal Code. The group members would often discuss how to troll Muslim women and Aumkareshwar Thakur developed the code for the ‘Sulli Deals’ app.