Two videos claiming arrests for wearing hijab show different incidents
Two videos have circulated on Facebook claiming that two Muslim women are being arrested and taken away for going out on the streets wearing hijab in India. However, a fact-check by Dismislab reveals that the two videos are of two different incidents. One video contains scenes of the arrest of a Samajwadi Party worker during a protest in India’s Uttar Pradesh last September. The other video is of the rescue of a woman who attempted suicide in Agra last May.
On October 8, a video was posted from a Facebook profile with the caption, “For wearing a hijab.” In one part of the video, a person is heard saying, “One of our Muslim sisters went out on the streets in India wearing a hijab. Because of this, look, they are pulling and tearing off her hijab, the police are taking her away.” Up until the publication of this report, the video has been viewed more than 5,700 times.
Scenes from two different videos are seen in the post. In the first video, two female police officers are seen trying to snatch an object from a woman’s hand. Conducting a reverse image search using keyframes of the video yields a video published on May 23 on the YouTube channel of “First Track News,” which claims itself as a media outlet. The headline of the video was, “An angry woman, victim of beating by her retired police sub-inspector father-in-law, attempted suicide by setting herself on fire at the DCP City office, but it was possible to rescue her.” The first 15 seconds of the video show an exact match with the circulated video. At this time, the woman is heard saying in Hindi, “I want to die.”
A keyword search yields a report published by the Indian media outlet Amar Ujala on May 22. The report states that, frustrated by beatings from her father-in-law, a woman attempted suicide at the Trans-Yamuna police station in Agra. The DCP assured an investigation and action regarding this matter.
In the second video, several female police officers are seen trying to force a woman into a police van, and the woman keeps resisting the police. Conducting a reverse image search using the video’s keyframes leads to a Shorts video published on September 11 on the YouTube channel of the Indian media outlet ABP News. The headline of this Shorts was, “This SP worker single-handedly made 5 female police personnel struggle.” Written in the description of the Shorts is, “A highly sensational video of a political protest in Uttar Pradesh has spread like wildfire on social media! A female worker of the Samajwadi Party is seen single-handedly defeating five female police personnel who came to detain her during the protest. When the police team was trying to force her into the vehicle, she put up such a fierce resistance that the five female police personnel were left completely flustered.” The video shows an exact match with the circulated video.
That is to say, scenes of two different incidents in India are being circulated with the claim of arrest due to not wearing a hijab.
