{"id":136514,"date":"2022-12-01T18:28:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T12:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/?p=136514"},"modified":"2022-12-01T18:28:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T12:58:24","slug":"victim-blaming-on-social-media-how-shraddha-murder-case-exposed-the-patriarchal-core-of-right-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/victim-blaming-on-social-media-how-shraddha-murder-case-exposed-the-patriarchal-core-of-right-wing\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim blaming on social media: How Shraddha murder case exposed the patriarchal core of Right Wing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inter-faith relationships between Hindu women and Muslim men have been a sore point for the Indian Right Wing for decades. The alleged defiance of traditional norms and customs by Hindu women has often led to moral policing and vigilantism. With the idea of ‘love-jihad’ making entry into public discourse, such vigilantism<\/a> has seen exponential growth in recent years. The Shraddha Walkar murder case has added fuel to the fire as accused Aftab Ameen Poonawala is a Muslim.<\/p>\n

The heinous act was met with widespread condemnation from all spheres of society. As more and more details of the gruesome murder became public, several prominent personalities took to social media platforms to express their shock. We first came to know that Shraddha and Aftab met on an online dating app and despite their parents\u2019 disapproval, pursued the relationship and moved to Delhi. Subsequently, there were reports<\/a> quoting Shraddha\u2019s father where he said that he had disapproved of his daughter\u2019s relationship with Aftab because the latter was a Muslim. As a result, Shraddha walked out of his home in Mumbai and they hadn\u2019t been in touch for over a year. Since this piece of information came out, Aftab and Shraddha’s religious identities and political beliefs, and invasive scrutiny of their lifestyle and life choices became the focal point of much of the discourse — both in social and mainstream media.<\/p>\n

Several news media outlets relentlessly reported on the incident. Much of the reportage sought to sensationalize the crime with unpleasant details, communal undertones, and victim blaming and shaming.<\/p>\n

Setting the Narrative<\/h4>\n

Interestingly, instead of focusing on violence against women in domestic spaces, from the very outset, the conversation veered towards a collective protest seeking surveillance and sanctions on inter-faith relationships. The accused in this case is a Muslim man and the victim is a Hindu woman. Hence the incident was lapped up by the love-jihad theorists who oppose such relationships to target Muslims.<\/p>\n

Rishi Bagree, for example, tweeted an image with the text, “\u0936\u094d\u0930\u0926\u094d\u0927\u093e \u0915\u0947 \u091c\u093f\u0902\u0926\u093e \u0930\u0939\u0924\u0947 \u0909\u0938\u0915\u094b \u0938\u092e\u091d\u093e\u0924\u0947 \u0924\u094b \u0935\u0939 \u0905\u0902\u0927\u092d\u0915\u094d\u0924 \u092c\u094b\u0932 \u0915\u0947 \u092c\u094d\u0932\u0949\u0915 \u0915\u0930 \u0926\u0947\u0924\u0940..”. (If somebody talked to Shraddha about this when she was alive, she would have blocked them calling them an ‘andh-bhakt’). Bagree implied that even if someone explained to Shraddha the inherent risks in getting into a relationship with a Muslim, she wouldn’t have listened because of her sociopolitical ideology.<\/p>\n

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\u0906\u091c \u0915\u093e \u0915\u0921\u093c\u0935\u093e \u0938\u091a pic.twitter.com\/ps7nS7eQMF<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) November 18, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bagree has 2.5 lakh followers on Twitter. When such opinions get amplified, they eventually facilitate collective hatred, often with real life consequences.<\/p>\n

The most common narratives of social media vigilantes were twofold:<\/p>\n

First, the accused, being a Muslim, is intrinsically a criminal. This is what is expected of him. Within hours of the case hitting the headlines, ‘Abdul’ and #lovejihaad started trending on social media. Several Twitter users (noticeably aligned with the Right Wing) tried to demonize the Muslim community by implying that being involved with a Muslim man or ‘Abdul’ would result in a fate similar to Shradhha\u2019s. Editor-in-chief of OpIndia, Nupur J Sharma tweeted, \u201cAapka Abdul bhi waisa hi hai\u201d (Archive<\/a>). The implication is that all Muslim men would mete out the same treatment to their respective spouses as Aftab did to Shraddha.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAapka Abdul bhi waisa hi hai\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) November 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Second, a Hindu woman is at fault if she chooses a Muslim partner going against her family, transgressing her faith and ignoring the ‘obvious’ dangers. For example, @dr_vee95<\/a> tweeted:<\/p>\n

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Always listen to your parents. You’ll be dead otherwise and people won’t even realise for over 6 months.#Shraddha<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/evWuGFaJke<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 dr_vee (@dr_vee95) November 15, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The tweet implies that the deceased is as responsible, if not more, as the perpetrator since she was the one who defied her parents and walked out. The subtext of such a comment is that it is unethical for a woman to choose personal aspirations over the sanctity of institutions like the family. Hence, her death is, in some sense, justice for such an act of transgression.<\/p>\n

Apart from the obvious communal angle, these opinions also reflect a major part of the national sentiment, unveiling the ugly side of this nation’s tryst with gender sensitivity. The tweets and comments on social media are not only deeply sexist and degrading to the victim and women in general, but also lie on the fringes of gender-based hatred.<\/p>\n

Lying underneath the victim blaming and shaming, there is a deep rooted conception in the collective psyche of who a woman can be or cannot be, in other words, the stark differences between an ideal woman and a fallen woman. One of Alt News projects has been to document hate speech in various forms, and to document this constant struggle with moderation of speech; hanging between the right to free speech and right to dignity. It is in this context that we are trying to analyse the nature of outrage over Shraddha’s death. We have taken the liberty to categorize the hateful content into three themes: Misogyny<\/em>, The ideal woman versus the fallen woman<\/em>, politics and practice<\/em>. Most of the hateful tweets fall at the intersections of these themes.<\/p>\n

Misogyny<\/h4>\n

Some of the tweets are plain misogynistic. Misogyny<\/a> is a deep-seated hatred for women stemming from the belief in their inferiority, and the acceptance of prejudice against women as natural and just. The understanding and practice of misogyny varies from culture to culture. The proliferation of social media platforms has played a role here. For example, although the social role of women is no more confined to domestic spaces, but a vocal assertion of their freedom is treated with disdain.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Hindustan Times<\/a>, cyber-psychologist Dr Nirali Bhatia says, \u201cOnly cyberspace offers a platform to say exactly what you feel without being bound by societal norms or codes of conduct… The internet lets you get away with it”.<\/p>\n

We found some of the most vile misogynistic comments on Shraddha’s Instagram and Facebook profile.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/p>\n

Right Wing columnist Shefali Vaidya<\/a> tweeted a screenshot of an OpIndia tweet which stated that “all of Aftab’s 20 girlfriends would be questioned. Some of his girlfriends even visited the house where Shraddha’s body was present”. Vaidya’s tweet was captioned, “I bet all 20 of them were stupid woke HINDU girls desperate for s\u20acx! All of them could have been <\/span>#ShraddhaWalkar<\/span>! <\/span>#AftabAminPoonawalla<\/span> #MeraAbdulAisaNahiHai”. (Archive)<\/span><\/p>\n

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I bet all 20 of them were stupid woke HINDU girls desperate for s\u20acx! All of them could have been #ShraddhaWalkar<\/a>! #AftabAminPoonawalla<\/a> #MeraAbdulAisaNahiHai<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/IlRNTRYgAA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Shefali Vaidya. \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf3 (@ShefVaidya) November 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most of the tweets imply or overtly reflect a tendency to naturalize misogyny. Tweets implying Shraddha deserved the treatment that was meted out to her because she did not abide by traditional Hindu norms are very common. For example, the following tweet by user @Saffron_Nik (Archive<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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We should not have any sympathy with those Hindu girls who leave their religion\/community & marry Abdul.<\/p>\n

Shraddha jaisi girls yahi behaviour deserve karti hai…<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mini \ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf3 (@Saffron_Nik) November 14, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Memes and jokes about this case have also flooded social media. Dehumanizing memes involving ‘fridge’ and ‘suitcase’ have been shared in abundance. Personal images of inter-faith couples are being arbitrarily circulated on social media with users asking questions like ‘Fridge or Suitcase?’ These memes have the power to visually evoke and provoke deep seated prejudice. Below are some of the tweets seek to hammer into the public imagination a sense of resentment towards inter-religious relationships.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n