Procession video circulated with claim of inventing ‘purdah-clad rickshaw’ for women
A video has recently circulated on the social media platform X claiming that purdah-clad (covered, for the purpose of modesty) rickshaws have been introduced in Dhaka as a new innovation for Muslim women. However, Dismislab’s fact-check has found that the video is from a procession organized to mark the 416th anniversary of Dhaka.
The video was posted on November 3 from an X account named “Voice of BD Hindus BD.” The post’s caption reads, “A New Invention: Covered Women’s Rickshaws for Muslim Women in Dhaka.” The 17-second video, bearing the logo of the newspaper “Kaler Kantho,” shows several rickshaws fitted with purdah. Text in the video reads, “Purdah-clad ‘women’s rickshaws’ seen in the capital” (translated into English).
As of the publication of this report, the video had been viewed more than 13,000 times and reposted 75 times. In the comments, one person wrote, “Is women’s safety in Bangladesh really this bad?” Another wrote, “Bangladesh had a bright future, until Islam took over.”
A reverse image search using key frames from the video found a 1-minute-37-second video report by Green TV News. Published on August 29, this video report matches the recently circulated video completely in the rickshaw puller, the cloth hung over the rickshaw, and the clothing and gestures of the passenger on the rickshaw.
Regarding this video report on YouTube, Green TV News wrote, “At the procession of the ‘Hridoye Dhaka 416’ festival in Lakshmibazar, Old Dhaka, a traditional purdah-enclosed ‘women’s rickshaw’ was seen. Once used for women’s travel, this special rickshaw has nearly vanished from modern urban life, but has appeared again on the streets of Dhaka as part of heritage” (translated into English).
A relevant keyword search found a report published by the daily Kalbela under the headline “Purdah-clad ‘women’s rickshaw’ on the road, as if old Dhaka has returned.” In this report, published on August 29, Kalbela wrote, “A purdah-clad rickshaw. Seeing it, one would think this vehicle of the past has risen from some road of Old Dhaka. In the colorful procession brought out in Lakshmibazar, Old Dhaka, to mark Dhaka’s 416th anniversary, one such ‘women’s rickshaw’ drew particular attention” (translated into English).
From this Kalbela report, it is learned that the “Dhaka Procession” was organized on August 28 at the initiative of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC). As part of the heritage, steamers, horse-drawn carriages, palanquins and purdah-enclosed “women’s rickshaws” were showcased, bringing back memories of Dhaka’s old transport system through this event.
Earlier, when an exhibition of this lost rickshaw of Dhaka was circulated as the “launch of women’s rickshaws,” The Dissent had published a fact-check report on it. However, the video was recently circulated again on social media with a false claim.
In other words, the video circulated with the claim of the invention of purdah-equipped rickshaws for Muslim women in Dhaka is, in fact, from a procession.
All social media captions, quotations, and news excerpts in this article have been translated into English from the languages in which they were originally posted or published.
