Fact Check: Social media giant Twitter has marked as “manipulated media” the image in which three Muslim women – in burqa and chained, are seen behind a man wrongly attributed walking in Afghanistan streets.
Twitter also said that the image has not only been “digitally altered” but is not from Afghanistan as claimed by a number of people on social media.
The image is regularly been shared on different social media platforms to malign Muslims and Islam. It recently resurfaced and widely shared after the Taliban’s peaceful takeover of Afghanistan – totally unexpected for the world and taking into the consideration the militant group’s past.
Twitter marked the “digitally altered” image as “manipulated media, after fact check teams, mainly working for Reuters and Associated Press, published the original image.
Analysing the fake image, news agency Reuters said it is not recent and the chains were digitally added onto the original photograph.
The earliest appearance of the image online is from a blog published in 2006 and no chains are present. The photography website credits Murat Düzyol, who told Reuters that he took the image in 2003, the news agency said also adding the link to the original photograph.
[The original image, captured by Murat Düzyol, is of Iraq.]
In a report published Wednesday, Associated Press also said that the supposed photograph of Afghan women is fake. The original image is from Iraq, which was altered to add chains.
"The photo was manipulated, and the chains were added. Photographer Murat Düzyol told The Associated Press he took the original photo in Erbil, Iraq, in February 2003", the news agency said.
Over the years, the photo has been misrepresented and posted multiple times. One blog falsely stated the photo was taken in Afghanistan and said it showed an example of women walking about five paces behind their husbands, the Associated Press said.
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