This video actually shows Muslim women participating in an event to promote religious harmony

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 22, 2019 at 06:30
3 min read
By AFP India

A photo has been shared in multiple Facebook posts which claim that it shows a group of burqa-clad Muslim women in India heading towards a shrine to renounce their religion by finding Hindu men to marry. The claim is false; the image is actually a four-year old picture from a gathering to promote religious harmony.

The picture was posted here on July 17 and shared nearly 4,000 times with a caption that claims the women are travelling to Devghar, a holy city in the Indian state of Jharkhand, known for its large temple dedicated to the deity Shiva.

The caption says in Hindi: "Many Muslim girls went to Devghar wishing to marry Hindu boys. Hey, Lord Shiva, please fulfil their wishes and free them from the hell of (their religion)."

Below is a screenshot of the Facebook post:

Screenshot of misleading Facebook post

The photo has also been shared with similar claims on Facebook here, here, here and here, as well as on Twitter here, here and here.

But the four-year-old photo was actually taken in the city of Indore, around 1,300 kilometres west of Devghar.

It depicts a “multi-faith event (that) was organised at the Madhumilan Square of the city to promote religious harmony,” according to local lawmaker Shankar Lalwani, who attended the gathering in his former role as chief of the Indore Development Authority, and who spoke to AFP over the phone on July 22, 2019.

A reverse image search found the same image was published here as part of a Hindi language report by a local news website on August 24, 2015, alongside several other photos from the gathering.

Hindi TV channel ABP also published a video report here on August 16, 2016, featuring the same photo, which it said showed an August 2015 event.

Below is a screenshot of the ABP video report:

Screenshot of video report

A Google keyword search found another report on the event published here by the English language newspaper Hindustan Times on August 25, 2015.

Below is a screenshot of the Hindustan Times report:

Screenshot of report by Hindustan Times

Kanwar Yatra refers to an annual month-long Hindu pilgrimage by devotees of Lord Shiva, as described in this report.

The Hindustan Times article says that the event was organised by Sam Pawari, the head of local interfaith group Sanstha Sajha Sanskriti Manch.

A journalist in AFP’s Delhi bureau spoke to Pawari by phone on July 23, 2019, who confirmed the photo was taken at the religious harmony event in Indore.

“Around 5,000 women belonging to the Hindu, Muslim and Parsi religions participated in the event. However, the non-Hindu women did not enter inside the Lord Shiva’s temple,” he said.

Pawari said that all the Burqa-clad Mulsim were asked to carry their identity cards to avoid any confusion or controversy.

The women can be seen wearing their identity cards around their neck in the photo published in the misleading Facebook post.

Pawari sent AFP several other photos taken at the event on WhatsApp, along with a link to a video report published here on YouTube on August 24, 2015.

Screenshot of photos sent on WhatsApp

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