Shraddha Murder Case Revealing Indian Media’s Rooted Islamophobia

The blood-curdling Shraddha Murder case sounds straight out of a horror movie. A woman was killed by her boyfriend over a fight, and the murderer cut her body into 35 pieces and dispensed it in parts over 18 days.

But the case is also highlighting a deeply rooted problem in the Indian media and society as a whole: Islamophobia and victim abuse culture.

The Shraddha Murder Case

Shraddha and Aftab worked together in a call center and met each other via a dating app. Shraddha’s family, however, was not in favor of the relationship. This led the couple to move to Delhi from Mumbai and live together.

According to the police report, Shraddha and Aftab always had troublesome relationships, with frequent stances of violence. But, six months back, the abused relationship had their last fight, in which Aftab choked Shraddha to death.

In fear of being caught, Aftab butchered Shradha’s body in 35 pieces. Then, for the next 18 days, the cruel murderer used the silence of city night to dispose of parts of Shraddha’s body across the Lutyens Delhi.

Aftab also continued to live in the same house where he murdered, butchered, and kept his lover’s body. In a police statement, he disclosed that he even used incense sticks to wash off the smell of blood and flesh.

The gruesome Shardsha murder case came to light when the victim’s father reached out to the police. Shortly after the FIR was filed, police caught Aftab, which is when the heinous murder case came to light.

But, as gruesome as the murder is, the Shraddha murder case is perceived in a very different light by the Indian Media.

People around the country are using the case to advocate love jihad, scaring, shaming, and silencing women about relationships, and so much more, but what the case stands for, i.e., intimate partner violence and women’s safety in India.

Communal Violence & The Islamophobic Indian Media

The violence caught on camera: A Muslim man’s house was set on fire in Agra by a mob over his relationship with a Hindu girl (16 April 2022).

Young Muslim boy assaulted in a college in Surat over claims of “love jihad” (24 November 2022).

A Christan community arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur city over claims of ‘Forcer Conversion (1 December 2022)

The above headlines, from this year alone, show how religious insecurities, which are not necessarily based on truth, have led to the rise in communal violence. Buring down houses, mob lynching, harassment of citizens, and increased attacks on youngsters have become the new norm.

The primary target of this violence is usually Muslims and Christians.

In many cases, the unverified information is circulated, mainly by the mainstream media, with a communal twist. In contrast, however, there is no credible data yet to prove that India is indeed grappling with “forced religious conversions” or “Love Jihad.“

But switch on any News channel, and these are amongst a few mainstream topics.

Shaming, Scaring, and Silencing Women: Victim Abuse Culture

“Western culture has ruined Hindu girls.” Read one of the many tweets blaming Shraddha for the murder.

From the 2012 Nirbhaya case (the famous 2012 Delhi gang rape case) to the 2022 Shradha Murder case, the victim blaming and abusing culture hasn’t changed.

In Lata Singh v. State of UP (2006), the supreme court noted that even if it “may be perceived as immoral,” a live-in relationship among two consenting adults is not illegal.

“Live-in or marriage-like relationship is neither a crime nor a sin though socially unacceptable in this country. The decision to marry or not to marry or to have a heterosexual relationship is intensely personal.”

Indian supreme court, 2013

However, when it comes to relationships, especially inter-faith couples, women are often scoffed at, ridiculed, looked down upon, and scared to silence.

Intimate Partner Violence

The shame associated with live-in relationships holds women from publically acknowledging intimate partner violence. In fear of being blamed for their choices and deserving of the harassment, these women shut themselves, evidently seen in the case of Shraddha and Aftab’s relationship.

Although the specifics of Shraddha Walker’s case are not yet known, it is important to keep in mind that if adult women in consensual relationships are reminded of their legal protections and that just because something is socially “frowned upon,” it does not necessarily mean it is wrong, brutal murder like these can be avoided.

But, intimate partner violence stretches far beyond violence in live-in relationships. Matrimony really isn’t a safeguard from abuse, either.

In India, the cases of cruelty against women by husbands have increased by 53%. 

“It appears that married women in India are safer on the streets than in their matrimonial homes.“

Delhi high court 

According to Kavita Krishnan, a women’s rights activist, husbands/ boyfriends murder women after months and years of domestic violence. And if people can have a different outlook, the lives of such women can be easily saved.

Shraddha Murder Case: The Wakeup Call

Shraddha murder case is the perfect example of how the Indian Media diverts the audience from the core problem (intimate partner violence) and directs them to the superficial issue of love jihad and forced conversions.

Polarizing opinions and Islamophobia influencing debates and reports have become the norm. Be it any news; mainstream media houses find a way to reap their Islamophobic perspective while religious minorities and abused women continue to suffer in the dark.

The case should be a wake-up call, if not for the media, at least for the Indian population, to demand the government for better laws to protect women. And India, as a society, needs to evolve and respect women for their personal choices. This will encourage women stuck in abusive relationships like Shraddha to come forward and be saved.