Nagpur: In the latest, a 21-year-old engineering student was held in Bengaluru by the Mumbai police in connection with the Bulli Bai controversy. The application, on a hosting platform called the ‘Github’ had pictures of Muslim women, who were being ‘auctioned’ without their consent.
The Mumbai police have registered an FIR against developers of ‘Bulli Bai’ app and Twitter handles that promoted this app.
What exactly is the Bulli Bai controversy?
The controversy came to light on January 1 after several Muslim women found themselves on auction on app hosted by the Github. Many of the photographs of the women were doctored and of women who were vocal on political and social issues.
Prominent journalists, activists and lawyers found themselves getting ‘auctioned’ on the app. A similar incident took place in July last year, when Muslim women found themselves on a platform called ‘Sulli Deals.’ The term ‘Sulli’ is an insulting term used by the right-wing trolls for Muslim women. Shockingly, Sulli Deals was hosted by Gitbhub.
According to a report, the woman who lodged a complaint against Bulli Bai works with an online news portal. In the complaint, she said, “The term ‘Bulli Bai’ itself seems disrespectful and the content of this website is clearly aimed at insulting Muslim women as the derogatory term ‘Bulli’ is used exclusively for Muslim women and the entire website to have been designed with the intent of embarrassing and insulting women.”