After Hamas attacks, X and YouTube witness posts and comments glorifying female suicide

After Hamas militants took Israeli civilians hostage on October 7, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube saw the glorification of mass female suicides by fire or “jauhar”.

In the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack when militants killed hundreds of Israeli civilians and took more than 100 people as hostages, social media platform X (formerly Twitter) saw the glorification of mass female suicides or “jauhar,” in the form of photos and comments posted by Indian internet users.

In response to a video clip showing an unconscious and unclothed woman lying in a truck amongst Hamas militants, many Indian X users, including those with hundreds or thousands of followers, publicly praised or justified the need for jauhar: the practice of Hindu women dying by fire during wars, mostly in precolonial India.

Though most social media platforms have policies which prohibit content glorifying self-harm or suicide, jauhar has largely slipped through the cracks because it is culture-specific and historical in nature.

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Within hours and days of the October 7 attacks, one could easily find posts on X (formerly Twitter) which used Hamas’ abduction of civilians to make a case for jauhar.

Verified X user @‌ishkarnBHANDARI, who had around 402,000 followers and described themselves as an advocate, posted on October 7: “The practice of Jauhar in India, can be understood today with what the terrorists are doing to Israel women.”

X user @‌SinghShaktiBJP, verified and with more than 22,000 followers, shared a post referencing Hamas on October 7 and used it to explain why “our mothers” practiced jauhar. The post also had an image, classified as likely AI-generated according to one image detector, showing a group of richly dressed women standing in front of a flaming pyre. The exact same text and photo was also published by several other accounts on X.