This video was shot the day Demark's niqab ban came into effect in August 2018
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 21, 2019 at 01:23
- 3 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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The 10-second clip that shows a police officer embracing a niqab-wearing woman was posted on Facebook on November 8, 2019, here.
It has been viewed more than 49,000 times and shared more than 1,700 times.
The Indonesian-language and Sundanese-language caption translates to English as: “The information is… a Danish police officer told a woman who wore a face veil that the parliament has decided to approve the use of face-veil/niqab for Muslim women in Denmark.
"The condition is the opposite in Indonesia which (is said) to have Muslim-majority populations. What’s wrong with this country?”
The Islamic garment shown in the video is a niqab, which
leaves space for the wearer’s eyes, according to this explainer published by Australian public broadcaster SBS.
Indonesian Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi on October 30, 2019, announced a plan to ban the niqab from government institutions, citing security reasons.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:
The video with similar claims has been viewed more than 100,000 times and shared thousands of times here, here and here on Facebook, and here and here on Twitter.
The claim, however, is false; the video shows a policewoman embracing a niqab-wearing protester during a demonstration against Denmark’s face-veil ban in August 2018.
A reverse image search on Google followed by a subsequent keyword search found two identical 10-second videos uploaded on YouTube and Twitter.
The first video was uploaded on YouTube here on August 3, 2018, with the title: “Denmark face veil ban.. Police officer embraces a niqabi during demonstration woman weeps..”
The second video was published here on Twitter by news site Middle East Eye on August 7, 2018. The caption of the video reads: “This police officer hugged a Muslim woman wearing the face veil instead of fining her after a ban was implemented in Denmark last week.”
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip in the misleading post (L) and the one published by Middle East Eye (R):
On May 31, 2018, Danish legislators passed a law banning full-face veils in public spaces, AFP reported on the day here.
A protest took place on August 1, 2018, the first day of the niqab ban, according to this Reuters report titled “Danes march in Copenhagen to protest ban on wearing face veils in public”.
The report included a photo of a police officer hugging a niqab-wearing woman during the rally.
The caption of the photo reads: “Ayah, 37, a wearer of the niqab weeps as she is embraced by a police officer during a demonstration against the Danish face veil ban in Copenhagen, Denmark, August 1, 2018.”
Below is a screenshot of the Reuters photo:
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