A Website in India is Offering Muslim Women for Sale, Country Says it is Investigating

• India has said it is trying to investigate a fake website offering Muslim women for sale in the country
• A journalist said that the website was created on GitHub which is owned by Microsoft and that it has over 100 photos of the women
• The Indian opposition parties has asked that the ruling party take immediate action to curb online intimidation of Muslim women

According to the Indian government, it is probing a website that claims to offer Muslim women for sale, which is the second time in a year that a fake online auction like this will take place in the country.

CNN Business reports that the website was created on GitHub, a coding platform owned by Microsoft, which developers use to build and host software.

A vulgar slang meant to denigrate women

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The website was named “Bulli Bai” a phrase that includes vulgar slang for the word penis in southern India with a word that is common in northern India meaning maid.

Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of the Indian fact-checking website, Alt News said that the site posted 100 photos of Muslim women and that he has screenshots of all of them before they were deleted.

Yanked off online

The site has since been pulled down and there is no proof that it had any other use beyond a fake auction to intimidate Muslim women in India, according to an official statement.

GitHub also confirmed that it had pulled down the account.

GitHub said:

The coding platform said GitHub it has a longstanding policies against contents and conducts that involves intimidation, discrimination, and inciting violence. The company said it suspended a user account following the investigation of reports of such activity, all of which violate our policies.

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Zubair said the page included photos of Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and prominent Indian actress Shabana Azmi. Many journalists and activists, who saw their photos on the site posted screenshots listed next to the words, "Your Bulli Bai of the Day is."

Outraged citizens want action

There was anger on social media, especially on Twitter, over the weekend. Opposition parties asked the ruling party, BJP to immediately take action against online harassment of Muslim women in the country.

Shashi Tharoor, Congress leader said on Twitter that to offer someone for sell online is a cybercrime and I call on the police to take immediate action. According to him, those involved in the crime deserve exemplary and condign punishment.

According to Ismat Ara, the entire site would have been built with the intention to denigrate and abusing Muslim women. She said this in a complaint filed with Delhi Police cybersecurity authorities. Ara, who also found her photo on the site, tweeted a copy of her police complaint.

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Nigeria's top trade partner

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that 10 countries spent over N3.44 trillion buying Nigerian goods in the third quarter of 2021(July to September).

NBS revealed this in its report published on it website which it titled Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics.

Breakdown from the report showed the aforementioned countries paid N3 trillion for crude oil and N399.5 billion for non-crude oil.

Source: Legit.ng