Genocide Watch Special Report on Muslim Women in India
October 6, 2025
Justice For All Canada expresses concern over the systemic persecution of Muslim women in India as documented in Genocide Watch’s new report.
The special report documents decades-long patterns in which Muslim women are deliberately targeted for sexual violence by Hindu nationalist groups and their political affiliates, whose attacks have gone largely unpunished. The report traces this violence to the ideological roots of Hindutva, where the Muslim woman is portrayed as a threat to Hindu purity and a vessel to be erased or claimed. The report cites how leaders in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP have revived colonial-era myths and weaponized them into calls for mass sexual violence.
These narratives have now migrated online. For example, the report documents how Hindu nationalist men use AI-generated pornography, rape threats and fake auction apps like Sulli Deals and Bulli Bai to publicly humiliate Muslim women. Those targeted particularly include journalists, activists or outspoken critics of the BJP-ruled state. The purpose of this digital abuse is to intimidate and remove Muslim women and their voices from public life.
Genocide Watch has previously issued a genocide alert for Muslims in India, tying escalating violence with state complicity and other conditions consistent with Dr. Gregory Stanton’s 10 Stages of Genocide. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention also made a similar declaration for Indian Muslims. This most recent report from Genocide Watch explains that sexual violence against Muslim women and girls is used to destroy a people’s ability to survive, reproduce and live without fear. It meets the legal definition of genocide under the U.N. Genocide Convention.
From Gujarat in 2002, to Muzaffarnagar in 2013, to Delhi in 2020, Muslim women have been subjected to organized gendered atrocities, as well as being silenced. These crimes took place during pogroms where police stepped aside and ruling party officials incited mobs. In each case, the intention and political outcome were the same: greater polarization, electoral gains for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a culture of impunity.
Muslim women are not the only targets of sexual violence. Human Rights Watch has documented caste and gender oppression faced by Dalit women. Perpetrators also subject them to systemic sexual violence with impunity. Their cases are routinely ignored or obstructed by the same state institutions that fail Muslim women.
Justice For All Canada echoes Genocide Watch’s recommendations and urges the following:
Muslims and other marginalized women are under genocidal threat in India. It is time for the Canadian government to take a leadership role, seek accountability from those complicit and review its bilateral relationship with India until positive changes are observed.
Justice For All Canada expresses concern over the systemic persecution of Muslim women in India as documented in Genocide Watch’s new report.
The special report documents decades-long patterns in which Muslim women are deliberately targeted for sexual violence by Hindu nationalist groups and their political affiliates, whose attacks have gone largely unpunished. The report traces this violence to the ideological roots of Hindutva, where the Muslim woman is portrayed as a threat to Hindu purity and a vessel to be erased or claimed. The report cites how leaders in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP have revived colonial-era myths and weaponized them into calls for mass sexual violence.
These narratives have now migrated online. For example, the report documents how Hindu nationalist men use AI-generated pornography, rape threats and fake auction apps like Sulli Deals and Bulli Bai to publicly humiliate Muslim women. Those targeted particularly include journalists, activists or outspoken critics of the BJP-ruled state. The purpose of this digital abuse is to intimidate and remove Muslim women and their voices from public life.
Genocide Watch has previously issued a genocide alert for Muslims in India, tying escalating violence with state complicity and other conditions consistent with Dr. Gregory Stanton’s 10 Stages of Genocide. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention also made a similar declaration for Indian Muslims. This most recent report from Genocide Watch explains that sexual violence against Muslim women and girls is used to destroy a people’s ability to survive, reproduce and live without fear. It meets the legal definition of genocide under the U.N. Genocide Convention.
From Gujarat in 2002, to Muzaffarnagar in 2013, to Delhi in 2020, Muslim women have been subjected to organized gendered atrocities, as well as being silenced. These crimes took place during pogroms where police stepped aside and ruling party officials incited mobs. In each case, the intention and political outcome were the same: greater polarization, electoral gains for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a culture of impunity.
Muslim women are not the only targets of sexual violence. Human Rights Watch has documented caste and gender oppression faced by Dalit women. Perpetrators also subject them to systemic sexual violence with impunity. Their cases are routinely ignored or obstructed by the same state institutions that fail Muslim women.
Justice For All Canada echoes Genocide Watch’s recommendations and urges the following:
- Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand must raise the issue of the sexual violence against Muslim, Dalit and other marginalized women in her bilateral meetings with India.
- The Canadian Government should condemn sexual violence against women in India in official communications and public forums, such as in the House of Commons.
- Global Affairs Canada should impose Magnitsky-style sanctions on Indian officials responsible for inciting and allowing sexual violence against women in India.
- Canada’s Ambassador to the U.N., David Lametti, should push for the establishment of a fact-finding mission to India to investigate the sexual violence against Muslim, Dalit and other marginalized women in India.
Muslims and other marginalized women are under genocidal threat in India. It is time for the Canadian government to take a leadership role, seek accountability from those complicit and review its bilateral relationship with India until positive changes are observed.