An old video of large crowds parading down a street has resurfaced in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed protesters in Bangladesh demonstrating against job quotas. The footage was actually filmed in Samawah, Iraq, and has been circulating online since at least July 2023 in TikTok posts about a procession to mark the Islamic festival of Ashura.
“Protest against Bangladesh quota,” read the Bengali caption of one YouTube video who shared the footage on July 18.
The Bengali text overlay on the video also claims it shows protests against job quotas that have sparked widespread unrest in the South Asian country.
At least 191 people were killed in the violence, including several police officers, according to a July 25 AFP count of casualties reported by police and hospitals.
What began on July 1st as student protests against politicized admission quotas for coveted public positions has turned into one of the worst agitations of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.
The video also spread on Facebook here It is here.
Iraq Procession
A reverse image search found a longer version from the video posted on TikTok on July 29, 2023 (archived link).
According to the Arabic post, the footage shows a procession in Samawah, southern Iraq.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the TikTok video (right):
The video was also shared on Facebook It is Instagram in July 2023 – a year before protests begin in Bangladesh (archive links here It is here).
A security official in Samawah confirmed that the video was filmed in the city, adding that it showed a procession heading towards the main thoroughfare, Corniche Street.
AFP confirmed the location of the video by searching Google Maps in Arabic for a telecommunications company called Zan Cell, which occupies the red building seen on the corner.
A tall blue building and palm trees in front of Zan Cell are also visible on Google Maps.
Although the street name now appears on Google Maps, the road leads to Corniche Street.
The video was circulated in several TikTok Posts which claimed to show the Procession of Sorrows, a ritual during the Ashura festival, which commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in a 7th century battle (archived link).
The annual event attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who traditionally walk to the Iraqi sanctuary city of Karbala.
In the period leading up to Ashura, mourning rituals are also carried out in Shiite cities and neighborhoods across the country.
