Outrage in India over ‘auction’ of Muslim women on mobile app

New Delhi, Jan 4 (EFE).- A mobile application that conducted a mock auction of more than 100 Muslim women caused outrage in India, where two people were arrested Tuesday in connection with the incident amid allegations of increasing attacks on minorities.

A 21-year-old student was arrested and brought before a court in Mumbai, local broadcaster NDTV reported Tuesday.

Moreover, a woman was arrested Tuesday as a main accused for having created the application, according to the Mumbai Police.

“Why am I just so disgusted but not shocked to know that it could be a woman?” tweeted Ismat Ara, a journalist whose picture appeared on the app.

Ara filed a complaint on Jan.1 with the Delhi Police, which she shared on Twitter, demanding an investigation “against people behind the auctioning of Muslim women on social media.”

The journalist came across her face in one application that day, as did dozens of other women belonging to the Muslim minority, a religion followed by 14.2 percent of the people in India.

The app has caused a certain outrage in the country, and Telecommunications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday that the Indian Government was working together with the Delhi and Mumbai Police in the case.

However, beyond official statements, several human rights organizations have denounced an increase in attacks against religious minorities under the government led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Moreover, this is not the first time that an app came out supposedly auctioning Muslim women online.

This app, named Bulli Bai, is similar to another app “Sulli Deals” that conducted mock auctions of Muslim women using their pictures.

Barely two weeks ago, during a religious assembly in the northern city of Haridwar, the attendees called for the killing of Muslims, an event that caused outrage over the slowness of the authorities and the police in acting against the organizers. EFE

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