If you didn’t see it tweeted for all the world to see, would you believe that Hindutva nationalists are blaming “jihadi Rohingya” refugees living in Jammu for the murder of Asifa? They’re doing so, the slander goes, to push back against nationalist objections to their living in Jammu. That must be why nationalist women lawyers in Jammu are protesting & threatening deportation of Rohingya refugees rather than standing with a little girl. This dehumanization of Asifa truly exposes the fault lines of gender, ethnic, religious, caste, & class oppression & the ideological relationship between nationalism & fascism.

It doesn’t take Nostradamus to say: “The extreme rightwing in India will use this incident to incite violence against Muslims, including Rohingya refugees living in Jammu, & against oppressed castes. Demanding justice for 8-year-old Asifa Bano has become part of opposing anti-Muslim pogroms in India, opposing the occupation of Kashmir, the defense of oppressed castes, & the defense of Rohingya refugees. They are all of a piece in the matrix of Muslim & caste oppression in India.”

#JusticeForAsifa

(Photo of placard from Kashmiri justice for Asifa rally last February by Faisal Khan)