A video from Bangladesh of a man wearing a female Muslim headscarf in an apparent attempt to escape arrest has been falsely portrayed as an incident in Hindu-majority India. The statement was repeatedly shared in publications supporting the introduction of a common civil code, a goal shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modiof the Hindu nationalist party, but which some Muslims fear could interfere with their religious laws.
“The beautiful begum (Muslim woman) has a special need for a burqa,” read the video’s Hindi caption, in an apparently sarcastic reference to the man.
The video shows officers removing the scarf from the man’s head and lifting the abaya he was wearing to reveal several packages taped to his body.
“It is under these burqas that Muslims smuggle weapons”, July 25, 2024 Facebook post added. “That’s why the Uniform Civil Code became a necessity.”
India has common criminal law, but rules on personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance vary based on the customary traditions of different communities and religions.
Prime Minister Modi’s long-serving Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released a uniform civil code as a way of improving gender equality, as women’s rights in India vary considerably depending on which code they fall under (archived link).
But many communities, especially Muslims, fear the legislation could interfere with their religious laws and see it as an attack on their identity and against India’s secular constitution.
The video was shared with similar fake captions on Facebook and so on social media site.
However, the video was shot in Bangladesh and not India as the posts claim.
Prison in Bangladesh
A reverse image search on Google found the video posted on a Youtube channel called Smile Tv Bangla on March 11, 2021 (archived link).
The video’s caption in Bengali read: “Two drug peddlers were arrested in police operations while the boy pretended to be a pregnant woman, sent to prison.”
The incident occurred in the Raozan subdistrict of Bangladesh, according to the video description.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in fake posts (left) and the video posted by Smile Tv Bangla (right):
The clip shared in fake posts matches the 1:04 mark from the YouTube video (archived link).
A keyword search found local news about the arrest here It is here which said police detained a man and a woman for drug smuggling in Raozan in Chattogram district on March 9, 2021 (archived links here It is here).
The man disguised himself as a pregnant woman to avoid arrest, reports said.
AFP confirmed that the images were filmed in Raozan comparing visual clues in the video with Google Street View images of the area (archived link).
Below is a keyframe screenshot comparison of the video published by Smile Tv Bangla (left) and the Google Street View images of Raozan district of Chattogram (right) with similarities highlighted by AFP:
AFP has already debunked cross-border disinformation between India and Bangladesh here It is here.
