When the lynch mob takes over

Kochi: The cyber attack on Hanan Hameed, a 19-year old girl, is yet another manifestation of the deadly combination of misogyny and religious fundamentalism holding a vicious grip in the social media universe of Malayalees. The virulent and sickeningly abusive trolls that have filled the social media since Wednesday show that the social bullies are unable to digest the simple fact that a girl is capable making a decent income on her own.

The cyber bullies accused Ms Hanan of concocting a story. But none of them took even a single step to verify her story before passing a judgment on her and launching a virulent campaign to discredit her.  The attack took a vicious turn after a filmmaker offered the girl a role in his forthcoming movie after reading about her plight. The cyber warriors of various hues including the progressives and religious fundamentalists then launched an attack against her by stating that the entire news report was fabricated as a pre-launch publicity for the movie. The film director concerned Arun Gopy, however, denied the claims in the social media and said he had come to know about the girl only through news reports and had no prior knowledge about her.

The bullies did not spare Mr Gopy either.  Despite him explaining the circumstances in which he offered her a role and that he would withdraw the offer if the news was found to be untrue, the attack continued.

Another victim of the cyber attack was opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala. Mr Chennithala who contacted her college got an assurance from the management that they would offer her all the help to complete her studies. His Facebook post explaining how he was moved by Hanan’s struggle also became the butt of ridicule.

The story of Hanan is simple. She is coming from an economically weak background with dislocated family. The father had abandoned the family and her mother is sick. The story so far appeared appealing for the average sensibility of the Malayalis. But they could not digest the fact that instead cursing her fate and being cry baby the girl did a slew of odd jobs - anchoring, compeering, acting and fish vending - to make a decent living.

The vicarious mindset of the Facebook bully was unable to comprehend such a course of action by a girl and he started looking for an alibi to satisfy his sick mindset. So he found out that the girl was wearing an expensive ring in her finger, selling fish wearing gloves and stylish clothes. How a person from economically weak background, especially a girl, could afford to do that was the question he failed to digest. So it was easy to brand her as a cheat. The shower of abuses was the natural corollary. The overzealous cyber bullies will only serve the cause of authoritarian political class to impose their own brand of disciplinary measures for social media.