The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) issued a statement on Monday condemning the online harassment of Dalit writer and activist Shalin Maria Lawrence. "Shalin has been facing high-volume targeted harassment on Twitter as well as Facebook over the past year, specifically from handles associated with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)," says the NWMI statement.
The statement describes the degree of harassment and trolling faced by Shalin who raises awareness about caste-related atrocities in Tamil Nadu on social media. "However, rather than engaging in introspection or at least combating her with facts, figures, or ideas, they have taken to coordinated attacks, bombarding her with demeaning language including casteist slurs, body shaming her, slurs based on her religion, and making scurrilous charges against her character and integrity. They have also targeted her close family members," the statement says.
"Shalin’s refusal to be silenced comes at a great cost to her physical and mental health," the statement says, going on to add: "The toll of such violence on the mental health of women journalists cannot be calculated. Many women journalists engage in self-censorship to avoid being subjected to such assaults online. The result is only a weaker democracy in which views that could be valuable are silenced."
In light of the NWMI's statement, journalists and activists have taken to social media to express solidarity with Shalin.
"I've followed Shalin on Twitter & the only time I heard her speak at a meeting I was moved by her passion. Political discourse on social media is reaching absurdly new levels on misogyny. Abusing someone for calling out atrocities shows the extent of rot," tweeted Tamil writer and activist Meena Kandasamy.
Journalist Dhanya Rajendran along with singers Chinmayi and TM Krishna also tweeted in support of Shalin.
Shalin is a Tamil writer and activist, author of 'Sandaikaarigal' and 'Vadachennaikari', and an active voice in the anti-caste and gender quality discourse in Tamil Nadu.
"The DMK's IT wing and bots are continuously abusing and trolling me. This is crossing all limits. I feel like quitting everything. The emotional torture is unbearable and cruel. This is life-threatening," Shalin said in a recent tweet. Shalin had also tweeted on March 9 about the turmoil she is undergoing because of the continuous online harassment. The writer had tagged the Twitter handles of the Tamil Nadu Police and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minster.
The NWMI statement also says that Shalin is not the only one being targeted this way. "A global survey by the International Centre for Journalists and UNESCO in 2020 found that nearly three out of four women journalists had experienced online violence," it says, demanding that the leaders of the parties tell their supporters and cadres to stop harassment against Shalin and other women.
The statement asks the DMK and the BJP to send a "strong message to their supporters that the harassment of women writers, journalists, and activists cannot be tolerated, let alone permitted".