Users fall for scripted video showing woman 'forced to undergo infertility treatment' in India

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 1, 2023 at 10:47
3 min read
By Anuradha PRASAD, AFP India

A scripted video showing a woman being treated for infertility by being made to lie in a puddle of water has been shared on social media with a false claim that it shows a real incident. The content creator who made the video told AFP it was scripted and filmed two years ago.

The post published on X -- formerly known as Twitter -- contains a 2-minute 20-second video that shows a woman lying in a puddle of water with her hands and feet tied. Two men approach her while recording the video. They are soon joined by another woman claiming to be the victim's mother-in-law.

It was also posted with a caption that claims the mother-in-law was convinced by a Sufi man believed to have spiritual powers -- known as a "Pir" -- to lay in a puddle of water to help her daughter-in-law conceive a child.

"You'd get angry about this, but they won't," the post's Hindi-language caption reads. "Her husband and mother-in-law have tied her hands and feet and forced her to lie in water for the past six days."

The caption also appears to mock the action in the video with the hashtags: "#science of #Islam".

The post has since received more than 66,000 views and 2,000 reposts.

A screenshot of the misleading tweet taken on August 25, 2023

The video was also shared here on Facebook and here and here on X with the false claim.

A longer version of the video was also posted here with the same claim.

However, the video was in fact scripted.

Scripted video

AFP has published a report on scripted videos that spread misinformation about Muslims in India made by content creators who have millions of followers on social media (archived link).

Teams that produce such videos could make as much as several thousand dollars monthly, depending on the views they receive.

AFP has also debunked false claims about Muslims in India here, here and here.

One of the misleading Facebook posts contains a link that leads to the original video uploaded by video creator Ankur Jatuskaran, who told AFP on August 24 that his clip was also scripted.

"It is a two-year-old scripted video. People are sharing it everywhere saying anything," he said. "It has nothing to do with Islam. None of the actors in the video are Muslim."

He also told AFP he posted the original 10:57-long video on Facebook on December 16, 2022 and on YouTube on March 31, 2023 (archived link here and here).

The Hindi-language caption with the Facebook video reads: "Save this sister."

A disclaimer at the 30-second mark of the 11-minute-long video reads: "The content made in this video should be considered for entertainment purposes only."

"We respect every individual, profession and organisation any roleplay we perform is solely to entertain you and not intended to hurt the sentiments of any person or community," the caption goes on the say.

The versions of the video that circulated in the misleading post started at the 50-second mark -- meaning the disclaimer was excluded -- and ended at the 3:03 mark.

Below is a comparison of the screenshots from the video in the misleading post (left) and the original video (right):

A comparison of the screenshots from the video in the misleading post (left) and the original video (right).

The woman playing the role of the victim’s mother-in-law can be seen in another scripted video shared by Jatuskaran here (archived link).

Dozens of such scripted videos can also be seen on Jatuskaran’s YouTube channel and Facebook profile here and here (archived links here and here).

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