Kerala Woman Gets Death Threats For... Being Part of a Flash Mob?

Jazla Madasseri has been harassed ever since she took part in a flash mob along with other Muslim women during IFFK.

Jazla Madasseri found herself caught in a controversy after she took part in a flash mob on 10 December at the Tagore Theater along with other Muslim women.

(Photo Courtesy: Jazla Madasseri/Facebook)

The district Vice President of the Kerala Students’ Union, Jazla Madasseri, is continuously being showered with abuses, even as she waits for a report from the district police chief of Malappuram on the online harassment she faced after she participated in a flash mob at Tagore Theatre during the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in Thiruvananthapuram.

Jazla Madasseri found herself caught in a controversy after she took part in a flash mob on 10 December at the Tagore Theatre along with other Muslim women. The flash mob was organised by the Free Thinkers Forum, an online community at the main venue of the IFFK, to create awareness against AIDS.

Though Jazla filed a complaint with the Women’s Commission on 12 December, the girl and her family continue to be targeted by cyber bullies. She said that she received death threats from within the state and abroad.

“Most of them were internet calls,” she said. “I am fed up, but I am not going to commit suicide,” reports Deccan Chronicle.  

Jazla, an MBA student in Bengaluru, hails from Manjeri in Malappuram, and had also participated in the protests by the Kerala Freethinkers Forum against the cyber-attack on the three Muslim girls.

Women’s panel member Shahida Kamal told Deccan Chronicle that Malappuram DPC Devesh Kumar Behera is expected to submit the report before 24 December.

They have asked us not to come back home. They have threatened to put up flex boards with our images for speaking up while being a woman. We have death threats against us, and have been told that we will be set on fire with kerosene. If such outrage is shown by the public because women speak for themselves, this has to be discussed.

Jazla Madasseri to The News Minute

This article has been published in an arrangement with The News Minute.