Himanshi Narwal, widow of the Indian Navy Officer Trolde after peace profession

Two weeks ago the photo of a woman who was immobile next to her husband’s body was viral about Indian social media.

It recorded a moment of unspeakable sadness – one that came to April 22 militant attack in Indian-judged Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed.

The woman in the photo was Himanshi Narwal, whose husband, one 26-year-old naval officerwas one of the victims. The couple, who was married for less than a week, was on a honeymoon when Vinay Narwal was shot.

But within a few days Mrs. Narwal, who was depicted as the face of the tragedy, was in the center of a hate campaign.

It started last week when she encouraged people not to focus on Muslims or Kashmiris, because emotions ran high throughout the country.

Survivors of the attack said that Hindu men were the target and that the victims were shot after the militants had checked their religion. Indian security forces are still looking for the attackers.

Since the attack there have been reports from Kashmiri suppliers and students in other Indian cities Coni loan And threats, mainly from members of Hindu right groups.

“People who go against Muslims or Kashmiris – we don’t want this. We want peace and some peace,” Mrs. Narwal told reports In a blood donation camp held by the family on what her husband’s 27th birthday would have been. “Of course we want justice. The people who have wronged him must be punished,” she added.

It was her first public explanation, because a video of her an emotional farewell to her husband’s coffin went viral. In it, the mourning widow separate With tears: “It is because of him that the world still survives. And we all have to be proud of him in every possible way.”

Her appeal to peace led to a rapid recoil. Within a few hours, many of the internet users who previously mourn from hindering her loss were offensive comments.

Some accused her of detering her husband’s memory while she refused to blame the ordinary Kashmiris for the attack. Others made and shared unfounded claims about her friendships and relationships with Kashmiri men while studying at a university in Delhi. Even more claimed that she did not have the right to talk about her husband’s death because they were only married for a few days.

As the online abuse continued, that of India, National Commission for Women (NCW) wrote on x That the trolls was “extremely reprehensible and unhappy”.

“Maybe her reaction may not have gone well with angry people. But any form of agreement or disagreement must always be expressed with decency and within constitutional boundaries,” NCW chairman Vijaya Rahatkar wrote on X.

Journalist Namita Bhandare, who deals with gender issues, said the BBC that it was “shocking” how much hate Mrs. Narwal received because he was simply attractive for peace and tranquility.

She became malignant trolls because she “appealed to peace rather than collapsing with the story of revenge,” added Mrs. Bhandare.

Mrs. Narwal was not the only survivor of the attack to face online abuse.

Arathi r Menon, the daughter of a man from the state of Kerala who was killed in the shootings, was also held after she told her test for the media.

Some people said she spoke too calmly and did not show much emotion when she told her father’s death. Others found mistakes with her praising two Kashmiri men that she told she helped her and took care of her “as a sister”.

“It is the same old story – women are always the easy goals,” says Mrs. Bhandare, adding that female victims of online abuse are probably also sexualized and threatened with violence.

“Being faceless online gives people the courage to say what they want,” she says. “And of course there is a patriarchy in the game, women are selected, regardless of who they are.”

In the midst of the abuse, Mrs. Narwal also received online support.

“Your (Mrs. Narwal’s) statement in the light of that loss was an act of grace and unimaginable power,” writer and activist Gurmehar Kaur wrote on X.

“My mother was your age when she lost my father in the (Kashmir) valley. I know this kind of loss.”

In 2017, Kaur, then a graduate student, became the goal From a vicious campaign for social media after she had spoken to a Hindu right student group after a collision at a university in Delhi. Many of the people who trolled her had an earlier campaign from hers, where she said her father, a soldier who died in 1999, was killed by war, not Pakistan.

Journalist Rohini Singh welcomed the NCW statement to support Mrs. Narwal, but asked why no action had been taken against the social media accounts “who clearly abused and defamants”.

Members of the opposition parties of India have also urged the government to act.

Priyanka Chaturvedi, a member of parliament of the Shiv Sena (UBT) party, tagged federal information and Minister of Appeal of Appeals Ashwini Vaishnaw in a afterAsk him to “stand with the widow of an Indian officer” and to take action against trolling.

No Indian minister has commented on the troll campaign and no police complaint has been submitted.

In the meantime, Mrs. Bhandare says that, like many online hate campaigns, this can also follow a well -known pattern: “It will be his run and then people will continue to their next target.”

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