The Worrying and Concerning Status of Women in India.

Emphasis on ‘Sulli Deals’ & the ‘Revenge Rape’ 

Written by Abbas at 40seconds

There remains what seems like an impenetrable wall of silence around violence and we must all play a role in breaking this violence. We, at 40seconds covered ‘The Digital Sex Crimes in South Korea’ last week and how critical the prime of being silent over contentious issues in the society like the ones we face today can be.

I found my hands trembling when I heard about the ‘Sulli Deals’ and the ‘Revenge Rape’ incidents happening in the same week. The trauma the victims of such assaults go through is unimaginable and nobody ever deserves to go through this.

Image of the App, Source: Twitter

‘Sulli Deals’

Amongst the rising tensions in the country amidst the pandemic and the rising fear of Islamophobia amongst the people, Muslim Women were quite literally being auctioned on an app posted on GitHub (An open-source program development platform) by trolls on the Internet. 

What does ‘Sulli’ mean? 

The word ‘Sulli’ is a derogatory term mocking Muslim Women, and was used in this case by miscreants in the society to provoke hate between the religious communities. 

Noor’s Case: 

Noor, A dynamic social activist who raised funds for the COVID-19 Campaign and Rohingya Refugees was one amongst the many victims who had been targeted brazenly by the miscreants of ‘Sulli Deals’, she was targeted for being a Muslim Woman who helped the society in various ways. 

Hana Mohsina Khan and many others like Noor found their privacy and consent sabotaged while calling and striving for Justice. Wrongdoers and Miscreant have reportedly been using this to tarnish and stain the name of communities as an attempt to rub salt to the wound and make things worse. 

Abuse is Abuse regardless of its medium and this case is similar to that of ‘Boys Locker Room’ in 2020, however not as much traction is being seen. 

The culprits haven’t been identified yet, an FIR has been lodged and the DCW seeks for an action report soon.

Image Source: Associate Press

‘Revenge Rape’ 

As Sejal Agarwal once said “Rapes in India won’t stop until the punishment of the culprit is made as harsh as the victim”, with more than 338,000 crimes reported against women in India, nearly 35,000 were for rape in 2018. 

A case in Bareily, where a 16-year-old girl was repeatedly subject to Sexual Abuse by a group of 8 men right in front of her parents’ eyes was reported in the same week when ‘Sulli Deals’ was reported and how frightening is the fact that a blind eye is being turned on such traumatic and worrying crimes. Agonizing even is that the 16-year-old victim who went through this was termed a ‘Revenge Rape’ by the wrongdoers stating obnoxious and baseless reasons that they wanted revenge because the girl’s brother had run away with a woman from their family and that the accused found this a mean of taking revenge.

While they begged for mercy, one of the accused even married her and her family was subject to threats of abuse and murder even if they intervened anymore and lodged complaints as a desperate attempt to get away from their evil crimes. An FIR was lodged as of 4th July.

I’d like to contrast a common occurrence in both cases, that the accused were ‘influential people’, and no official and strong response on either of the cases has been brought to justice. 

While no human being ever deserves to be put through such traumatic experiences, it’s obvious that it’s socially evil and wrong, it is a representation of the Apartheid we face in our daily lives where an influential/Well-to-do person, accused or not, gets through without any charges and the victims don’t get to feel and experience justice.