Facebook posts do not show female Afghan pilot 'stoned to death' by the Taliban
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 2, 2021 at 09:35
- 3 min read
- By Qadaruddin SHISHIR, AFP Bangladesh
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The images were shared in a Facebook post on August 19, 2021.
"Sofia Firozi, first Afghan woman military pilot, was stoned to death by the Taliban according to Sharia law. Shame on Taliban," reads the Bengali-language caption.
The post shows a graphic photo of a woman with a bloodied face alongside a photo of a female pilot wearing a headscarf and military uniform.
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The photos were shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here, here and here.
However, the claim is false.
Google reverse image searches found the first photo of a female pilot was published in the archives of the Associated Press news agency.
The image shows Afghan pilot Safia Ferozi preparing for a flight at the Afghan military airbase in Kabul on November 21, 2016, according to the photo's caption.
Ferozi featured in an AP report in December 2016, in which the then-26-year old talked about becoming Afghanistan's second female pilot after growing up in a refugee camp.
AFP found no credible media reports that Ferozi had died, as of September 2, 2021.
Graphic photo
The second photo has in fact circulated in reports since 2015 about a woman who was killed in Kabul after being falsely accused of blasphemy.
The image was published in a report on May 7, 2015 by British newspaper The Times.
It was headlined: "Men to hang for mob murder of woman".
Four men were sentenced to death for the killing of a woman named only as Farkhunda, the report states.
She was beaten and set on fire in an "extended attack" on March 19, 2015 in Kabul after being falsely accused of burning a Koran.
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A graphic video of the killing was published by the New York Times in a report on December 26, 2015.
It gives the woman's full name as Farkhunda Malikzada. The image circulating in the misleading social media posts can be seen at the video's four-minute mark.
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AFP reported that the woman was beaten with sticks and stones before being thrown from a roof and run over by a car outside a mosque.
The killing triggered protests around Afghanistan and drew global attention to violence against Afghan women.
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