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):