‘Targeted for Muslim identity;’: Academicians back Jindal professor facing FIR for lecture on dating

Jindal University professor Sameena Dalwai was targeted by trolls on social media due to her Muslim identity and political beliefs, a group of over 500 academicians said in a letter supporting her.

On September 23, during a lecture on sexuality and desire, Dalwai had opened a dating app and projected it onto a screen in a bid to analyse the language of dating profiles. However, this exercise allegedly caused discomfort among some students as the profiles of their friends also popped up on the screen. She closed down the app after objections from the students.

Weeks later when a lectured delivered by political scientist Achin Vanaik on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict triggered a controversy, clips from Dalwai’s lecture on dating also surfaced on social media. In his talk, Vanaik had said that Zionism and Hindutva were different as the former was “not anti-Muslim” while the latter was “fundamentally and foundationally anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic”.

Subsequently, a screenshot of an email from Dalwai to fellow faculty members defending Vanaik’s talk also went viral. In her email, she had written about “Jai Shri Ram” slogans being chanted on campus and “right-wing” students and faculty organising their “own events”.

On December 22, the Haryana Police filed a first information report against Dalwai for...

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