What is Bulli Bai, the controversial app targeting Muslim women on social media?

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The year 2022 started on a controversial note as a controversial app featuring photographs of over 100 Muslim women to "auction" them to online bidders led to an outrage.

On January 4, a 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru was detained by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch’s cyber police station personnel for allegedly using his Twitter handle to “share derogatory content” from the app designed to "insult Muslim women", reported news agency ANI.

Several media reports claim that the accused identified as Vishal Jha has now been arrested.

The said app also included pictures of prominent actor Shabana Azmi, wife of a sitting judge of Delhi High Court, multiple journalists, activists and politicians, were uploaded for auction on an app.

The row surrounding the app named 'Bulli Bai' is similar to last July’s 'Sulli Deals', in which nearly 80 Muslim women were put up 'for sale'.

The 'Bulli Bai' app was created on the Microsoft-owned open software development site GitHub. For the uninitiated, 'Bulli' refers to a derogatory word used for Muslim women in local slang.

Profiles on the app, which contained images and other personal details of the victims, were created and being propagated without the consent of the women.

The incident went viral when a woman journalist shared an image of her being sold on the Bulli Bai app as ‘deal of the day’.

Taking to Twitter, the journalist said it was "very sad that as a Muslim woman you have to start your new year with this sense of fear & disgust."

Quratulain Rehbar, a journalist from Kashmir, was also listed on the 'online auction'.

Last year I wrote about how muslim women's pictures were auctioned online where women felt haunted and humiliated. Today, after a year seeing my own picture in another trend #bullideals, besides other muslim womens', makes me feel utmost disgusting. https://t.co/AE0N1sInE2

— Quratulain Rehbar (@ainulrhbr) January 1, 2022

As absurd as it may sound, this, however, is not the first time that such an incident has occurred.

This was the second attempt in months to harass Muslim women in India by "auctioning" them online. In July 2020, a similar app by the name of "Sulli Deals" surfaced, putting several Muslim women up for "auction" to online bidders. The app featured profiles of more than 80 Muslim women without their consent - using photos they uploaded online - and described them as "deals of the day".

The term "sulli" is a derogatory word used to refer to Muslim women.

The controversy led to a social media outrage from several sections of society including top politicians across parties.

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi flagged the issue and claimed that she has repeatedly asked the Union information technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to take stern action against “rampant misogyny and communal targeting of women through #sullideals like platforms.”

‘A shame that it continues to be ignored,” she added.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, "The humiliation of women and communal hatred will only stop when you stand against it in one voice, and the year has changed, so change your fate and it's time to speak up."

महिलाओं का अपमान और सांप्रदायिक नफ़रत तभी बंद होंगे जब हम सब एक आवाज़ में इसके ख़िलाफ़ खड़े होंगे। साल बदला है, हाल भी बदलो- अब बोलना होगा!#NoFear — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 2, 2022

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said, "Appalling that the criminals behind such derogatory & demeaning actions against Muslim women are given a free run."

Appalling that the criminals behind such derogatory & demeaning actions against muslim women are given a free run. Whether its open calls for genocide of muslims or targeting muslim women online it is clear that these fringe elements enjoy the patronage of those in power https://t.co/EayNZ9cXml

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) January 2, 2022