The online moral police forces cracking down on interfaith relationships

Illustration: TBS

One morning, Abanti woke up to find her Facebook messenger inbox flooded with messages from strangers, filled with sexist and communal slurs. Alarmed and confused by the sudden torrent of hate, she scrambled to understand what had gone wrong. The messages accused her of being in a relationship with someone deemed unacceptable to the message senders.

Abanti, from a Hindu background, uploaded a picture with her Muslim friend Ramim on the occasion of Durga Puja. The picture somehow drew the attention of someone who assumed the recent university graduate was in a romantic relationship with him.

Even though the assumption was baseless, the unknown person decided to share the picture with a group that "works" against the "love trap" set by those of a different religion, as they like to frame it.

The Facebook group 'Sanatani Bondhuder Paribar' (the family of Sanatani friends) has thousands of members who believe the same thing: Anyone with the same religious background must not be in a relationship with someone from any other religion. If someone defies this, they must be stopped at all costs.

Moral policing is not something new in Bangladesh — but what is new is the rise of these self-appointed "police" forces online, a trend that has been surging over the past few years. Thousands of individuals have banded together in groups dedicated solely to criticising and harassing those who dare to choose interfaith relationships. 

The group notified Abanti's parents that their daughter was in a relationship with a Muslim boy and that she must be stopped. They do this through their local networks. Whenever a case is identified, the group deduces the location of the 'suspect' – primarily through social media stalking – and reaches out to their group members in the said location to locate the individuals and their families in question. 

Luckily, Abanti's supportive family was aware that she and Ramim were good friends, and they did not make a fuss. But Abanti was harassed constantly for a few long days. First, she deactivated her Facebook account for some time. Later, she changed the name and username of her account so that she could not be tracked with the circulated profile link.

"Moral policing and extra-legal mob culture is a manifestation of patriarchal culture in Bangladesh. It is an antithesis to human rights and dignity," said Professor Dr S M Masum Billah, chairman of the Department of Law at Jagannath University. "It constitutes a violation of constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, privacy rights and creates an atmosphere of violence and atrocities towards women."

Abanti became so traumatised by the incident that she refused to talk about it. Her friend, the other victim of the incident, Ramim, narrated the story to TBS.

"I received similar messages, but I could ignore the messages I got. It was Abanti who suffered the most," said Ramim. "She does not want to remember the horror she had to go through."

Sanatani Bondhuder Paribar is not alone in its actions — numerous other groups are engaging in similar activities.

Persecution in the name of protection 

There is a private Facebook group called 'Save Our Sisters (Official)' with approximately 2.5 lakh members and they have a Telegram group under the same name, with over 22,000 subscribers.  Multiple pages and groups on Facebook under a variation of this name, which engage in similar activities, also exist.  

This official group also has a website. It was active until a few days ago but currently shows an "Error 503. Service Unavailable" notice. 

All of these platforms are run by anonymous accounts, and accounts that use pseudonyms, thus, remaining untraceable. The primary goal of these platforms is to generate online hatred ("resistance," as they like to call it) when they suspect two people engaging in an interfaith relationship. 

The ramifications of social media make our society a Facebook republic. A digital theatrocracy perverts the domain of law. Apart from making clearer provisions penalising the intrusion of privacy and invasion of civil liberties, people need to attain the capacity to obey the law.

Professor S M Masum Billah, Chairman, Department of Law, Jagannath University

Generally, members share photos collected from social media, such as Facebook or Instagram, of two people, possibly of different religions. Whether there is an actual relationship or not becomes irrelevant — suspicion of an interfaith relationship is enough to subject individuals to online moral policing and harassment.

First, they publicly disclose the name and picture of the boy, and in many cases, the name and picture of the girl as well. Then, they flood the girl's inbox with messages urging her to end the relationship. They also message her family members and relatives — anyone they can find on Facebook. As a result, the girl faces severe familial and social harassment.

Meanwhile, the boy is also subjected to various forms of harassment and threats. For instance, in a "Save Muslim Sister Chat (Official)" Telegram group with nearly 5,000 subscribers, Facebook profile links of a boy were shared – which prompted communal slurs like "Malaun", "Bhagwa terrorist" accusing the person of promoting Hindutva ideology from the said subscribers.

Abhijit, another victim of such online harassment, posted some pictures with his friends, some of whom happened to be females from Muslim backgrounds. Someone on his friend list decided to snap screenshots of the post and arrange an online "trial" against Abhijit.

A post in "Save Muslim Sisters," the Telegram group where the "trial" took place, says, "Many Muslim girls have fallen victim to the trap of this Bhagwa terrorist Abhijit." Then the profile link of Abhijit and some other girls with whom he posted pictures are attached at the end of the post.

There are hundreds of similar cases in this group.  

"Later, I got a lot of friend requests and threatening texts from unknown accounts that appear to be fake, or use pseudonyms," Abhijit told TBS. "My friends also got similar friend requests and texts from the same people."

A 3:41 minute-long video was circulated in a public Facebook group called "O Sisters of the Ummah be careful" last month with 570 members. A boy is seen harassed by a group of people who appear to be Muslims by their attire. The caption of the video includes, "If you dare raise your eyes toward our sisters, your eyes will be plucked out." This is an example of the content shared. 

The psychological impact of such policing is profound — parents are pressured to intervene. Such experiences not only strain familial bonds but also leave long-lasting scars on mental health, as happened to the victims mentioned above.

Legal and social remedies

Although there are mechanisms for reporting these abusive platforms on social media, in reality, it does not come to much use. 

An officer from the ICT Department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, requesting anonymity, stated that they have not received any formal complaints regarding such cases. "If victims do not come forward to file a complaint, who can we take action against?" the officer explained.

He emphasised that if victims file a general diary (GD) or lodge a formal case against the group accused of harassment, the police can then take appropriate legal action. "There are laws to prevent such activities, and we are ready to act, but we need victims to formally report the incidents," he added.

On Monday, Enamul Haque Sagar, Assistant Inspector General, Media and Public Relations, Police Headquarters, said he would look into the matter and then comment. But TBS did not get an answer in subsequent calls.  

The victims mentioned in this story opted to not lodge police complaints because, they said, they feared it would result in religious, social, or familial repercussions rather than protection. 

These incidents raise a vital question: What does the law say about moral policing in the country? "Moral policing per se is not unlawful in Bangladesh. But depending on how one interprets it, one can resort to litigation under constitutional, criminal and digital security law dispensation," said Professor Masum.

"For example, one can approach the High Court Division to instruct the police, and for that purpose, the government, to create an atmosphere conducive to women's safety and security and declare the government's inaction illegal."

Professor Masum suggested resorting to the Cyber Tribunal for violating privacy rights, harassment, and offending feelings. "A bunch of criminal law provisions from penal law, Nari o Shishu Nirjatan Ain can also be invoked to prevent such abuse," he added further.

The constitution of Bangladesh recognises privacy as a fundamental right under Article 43. 

"The ramifications of social media make our society a Facebook republic. A digital theatrocracy perverts the domain of law," said Professor Masum, adding, "Apart from making clearer provisions penalising the intrusion of privacy and invasion of civil liberties, people need to attain the capacity to obey the law."

He believes that there is no permanent cure for this affliction. "Enlightenment is required to respect privacy. People of our social settings have learned nothing about respecting privacy and the limits of exercising their rights," he said.

Disclaimer: All names of the victims in this story have been changed to protect their identities.