Bepurdah- the diktats of existing online

The world was eager to embrace 2022 with a renewed sense of hope, but on the very first day of the year, over a hundred Indian Muslim women woke up to find themselves traumatised, numb, and disgusted: photographs sourced without permission from their social media profiles had been posted on an app called Bulli Bai on Github, where the women were listed for an online auction. Members of the app were asked to place bids for each woman.  Six months ago, another app called Sulli Deals staged a similar auction of Muslim women. Despite several complaints, no action was taken against the perpetrators. Both terms – ‘Sulli’ and ‘Bulli’ are distorted versions of the term, ’Mulli’ (an Islamophobic slur) which