Many women are fearlessly using social media for expressing their opinion
Jolly
“This message has been temporarily removed because the sender’s account requires verification.” This appears in a Facebook message box, in place of the messages sent by Inji Pennu. An avid blogger for years, the NRI woman has been posting on the social media on all matters, political and otherwise. The past few days, she has been supporting another Facebook activist — Preetha G. Nair — who has been subjected to a lot of online abuse following a comment she had made on late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. At the time of writing this story, Inji Pennu’s profile has been removed. Facebook wants her to clear her identity. But then she was forced to adopt the pseudonym Inji Pennu after the many threats and attacks that had followed her posts.
This is Inji Pennu’s story, a prelude to Preetha’s story, both Malayali women who dared to speak out against the majority. This is the story of women who are attacked on the social media for having an opinion.
Inji Pennu has written in her blog on Wednesday, about ‘leaning out from Facebook’. She writes she had once been ‘a naive newbie’ who had an opinion about everything she read, saw and thought about. But when she wrote about eating beef, men threatened to kill her for insulting the cow. When she wrote about copyright, a group of men tracked her down and put up her email id and details in a porn site. The police couldn’t help her and she couldn’t afford a lawyer. “I started to guard my privacy diligently, because only then I had the freedom to speak,” she writes.
She was impressed by Preetha who remained unmoved by the overflow of abuse. Inji Pennu wrote in support of her in Global Voices, an online space where she has been contributing since 2011. “Immediately the perpetrators turned towards me, issued threats to take down my family, to choke me at Miami Beach.”
Preetha had to face the same trouble several times. Her last profile was removed only months ago and this time she had decided to be careful. Before the Kalam episode, there was another when Preetha addressed MLA G. Sudhakaran as viddikushmaandam after he had commented that actresses should now wear shorter clothes to get attention, and teased women television anchors with bobbed hair. There was a lot of attack on Preetha then. So she feels it is not just ‘Sanghis’ who attack anyone with a non-feudal thought. When Abdul Kalam had passed away and Facebook was full of eulogies, Rahul Pasupalan, another activist, wrote he was a great scientist but he had disagreements with Kalam’s stand on the Koodankulam issue and promoting Amritanandamayi. Preetha couldn’t resist commenting how Kalam could be a great scientist if he promoted her.
And the attack began. Fake profiles were created in her name, personal attacks came with pictures of her drinking and smoking. Even her 12-year-old autistic kid was dragged into it, someone asking if he was born to a ‘pandi’. “I complained to the cyber cell but the case has been transferred to Palakkad.”
Hi-tech Crime Enquiry Cell head, assistant-commandant N. Vinayakumaran Nair said that two petitions were received in this connection, one from Preetha, that she was being abused by many on Facebook and another by an individual seeking action against Preetha for a post allegedly defaming former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. “We are contacting FB authorities to get details of those who made the posts. Based on that further action will be initiated.”
She has other bold voices in her support. Joshina, a software engineer, says, “The space for expressing public opinion is very important for any democracy, and historically that space for women is controlled by patriarchy. Now the medium of expressing opinion changed to social networks and many women fearlessly use them. But right wing tendencies joining hands with patriarchal violence try to use this space for attacking and preventing bold political expressions of women like Preetha.”
Jolly, a human rights activist and Preetha’s friend, says: “It’s just proof of the intolerable male psyche, which is not limited to the cyber space. Because the people who make such vulgar comments are real people. When it comes to women, there is no left or right because they have decided how a woman should behave or dress. And they can’t accept her going beyond that, be it an actor, dancer or homemaker.”
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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