By RANA AYYUB
The Indian female journalist facing the whole world fiercely not leaving her ground to abusers to humiliate, criticize her, a woman who stood still like a rock in the tough times of her life facing all the abuse she could on social networking sites, when asked about her 6 years spent on twitter talks about her experience.
The Journalist, Independent columnist and an author was crestfallen when she was being trolled on twitter since she joined it in 2012, after releasing the Ishrat jahan’s fake encounter CD, the then offenders mostly the BJP activists, wanting to silence the journalist’s voice came up with her fake cd’s. When asked about her hard times she says ‘there are days off course when it gets really abusive’ recalling the fake RanaAyyub Cd’s surfing the internet, with people commenting for not finding her obscene photos. They even photoshopped her picture and her mother’s pictures in obscene manner.
Her investigation of the Gujarat fake encounters ‘‘Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up as been listed by magazine as one of the twenty greatest magazine stories of all time’s across the world.
Rana has being facing abusive twitter trolls since then, is called immoral Floozy, Porkistani, Jihadi Jane, Rana Hafiz Saeed, just a few terms used for her on social media by the Twitter trolls, most of whom are active BJP members. There were times when she questioned herself about her fight against the wrongdoers only to find discouragers as ‘paid syndicates doing their job’ as she says them.
How being a practising Muslim, having liberal and democratic ideas for the country subject her to being abused disgraced for what she writes in her columns or tweets in all or any form they could think of being an Indian National asks Rana.
Being Rana, opinions and views expressed by her need not just pass the filter of the ethics of journalism and neutrality but also has to pass many other added filters in the New India. She posts her Ramzan and iftar pictures she gets lewd comments for them, she posts wishing holi she is disgraced and termed as drunken, shameless for that tweet.
Recently found herself trending the internet for supporting Gurmeher Kaur by Virender sehwag and Randeep Hooda. Dangal actress Geeta Phogat asked her whether or not the slap for supporting her was enough or not. Yogeshwar Dutt, boxer asked her to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’ to prove her patriotism towards the Country.
Zaira Wasim, the young Kashmiri girl who got famous after Dangal was trolled too, first for meeting Mehbooba Mufti, Kashmir Chief Minister and second for asking the Union sports minister Vijay Goel about his offensive tweet on a hijab-wearing women when he compared a picture of Wasim wearing shorts and t-shirt a woman in a veil was strapped in a cage,she was called the jihadist, conservative Muslim woman, a separatist.
She talks about the outrage against the wife of the Indian cricketer Mohd Shami for wearing a sleeveless outfit and was trolled and subjected to and the twenty-two-year-old Suhana Syed from Bangalore, a hijab wearing girl who sang a Hindu devotional song in a Kannada TV channel reality show , says Rana that women who speak in India specially the ‘Muslim’ women are abused called terrorists, jihadist or any other word they could come up with. ‘ We are molested virtually on a daily basis for views that do not find favour in the prevalent idea of normal, the acceptable people’.
She has a message for the haters who fail to understand and hope’s they get this straight for the last time: I am not going anywhere, I am here to stay, says Rana
This piece is part of HT’s new campaign, Let’s Talk About Trolls, which focuses sharp attention on online abuse and bullying.