Bangladeshi Hindu girls converted to Islam out of free will; video viral with false claims

A 2.20-minute-long video that shows a scuffle is being widely shared on social media. The clip also shows a woman falling down amid the chaos and two others in burkhas getting into a car and leaving. The crowd then attends to the woman who fell down on the road.

Social media users are sharing this clip with a ‘Love Jihad’ angle. It is claimed that a 22-year-old Hindu woman married a Muslim man in court and called her mother a ‘kafir’ (infidel). This is when the mother fell down and had a heart attack.

Premium subscribed X (formerly Twitter) user akhilesh tripathi advo (@highcourtallad) shared the clip on February 14 with a caption in Hindi that can be translated as: “Near the car, a 22-year-old chartered accountant girl wearing is standing wearing a black burqa who has just recently had a court marriage. Right beside her, her mother, dressed in red, is crying and trying to explain to the girl while hugging her. The girl, calling her mother a non-believer, pushes her away. The mother has a heart attack and falls to the ground, while the girl comfortably sits in the car and drives away. The peace messengers standing above are happily saying that one burden has been reduced. Whether you provide today’s education to earn money or not, give religious education to Hindus, otherwise, you will be ruined. 😯” The tweet has received over 3.2 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 2,200 times. (Archive)

*कार के पास काले बुर्के मे 22 साल की चार्टेड अकाउंटेंट लड़की हैं जिसने अभी अभी कोर्ट मैरिज की है । उसी के पास लाल ड्रेस में मां रो रोकर लड़की से गले लगते हुए समझाने की कोशिश कर रही है। लड़की ने मां को काफिर कह कर दूर कर दिया। मां को हार्ट अटैक आ गया और वो जमीन पर गिर गई और लड़की… pic.twitter.com/w63jkpNn7P

— akhilesh tripathi advo (@highcourtallad) February 14, 2024

Another premium subscribed X user @ArchanaaTiwari, who according to her bio is a journalist and news editor, also shared the same clip on February 14 with the same caption. The tweet has received over 96,000 views and has been retweeted over 1,500 times. (Archive)

आज की शिक्षा देकर पैसे ओर कमाने का जुनून दो या ना दो ….. पर धर्म की शिक्षा जरूर दो हिंदुओ वरना बर्बाद हो जाओगे…🙏🙏

कार के पास काले बुर्के मे 22 साल की चार्टेड अकाउंटेंट लड़की हैं जिसने अभी अभी कोर्ट मैरिज की है । उसी के पास लाल ड्रेस में मां रो रोकर लड़की से गले लगते हुए… pic.twitter.com/5YEcMv93yD

— Journalist Archana Tiwari (@ArchanaaTiwari) February 14, 2024

Several other users shared the video with the same claim on X.

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Fact Check

We broke down the clip into several key frames and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to a tweet from October 31, 2023, that carried the now-viral video. The tweet mentioned that the incident was from Bangladesh.

After running a relevant keyword search in Bangla, we came across a YouTube video posted by a channel called DHOFAR Tv on October 30, 2023. The title of the video in Bangla said: “Comilla court | An event that happened today | Two girls converted from Hindu to Muslim”. The YouTube video carried the same viral clip. The description of the YouTube video also mentioned that the girls had converted from Hinduism to Islam about five months back and were kept in protective custody and on the day when the video was taken they were let go.

Further, it stated: “The appointed lawyer of the case said that the two girls, who had converted from the Hindu religion to Islam five months ago, had left their homes and were living elsewhere and giving tuition to sustain themselves. Later, their father reported them missing at the police station and filed a GD, and subsequently police handed over two people to the higher court through a sub-judge. After being handed over, the victim duo expressed their reluctance to go with their parents and informed that they had embraced Islam, so they might face social and familial pressure if they returned home. The appointed court sent them back to safe custody. After staying in custody for a long time, when the victims reached adulthood, the appointed court ordered them to be released into their own custody upon their request through their lawyer.

In the subsequent process, when the victims were leaving the court premises after being released from custody, an unexpected incident occurred when their parents and relatives tried to take them away forcibly. With the assistance of the lawyer and the police, the victims left the court premises.”

We also found a Facebook video posted on November 1, 2023, by Adv M Hossen Asif which featured the two girls who had converted to Islam. In the video, the girls talk about the incident that happened outside the court premises that is being shared in the viral video and why they decided to convert to Islam.

The girls mention that after they had decided not to go with their parents, the latter tried to forcibly take them away. However, they (the girls) were safely taken out of there by their advocate, Asif, and some police officials. They also mention that they are safe now and do not wish to disclose their location.

They further clarified that there was no romantic engagement between the two of them (the two girls) or with anyone else, if that was the case they would have instead gotten married with their lovers or had eloped. They also explain the reasons for their conversion to Islam. They point out that they had done so out of their own free will.

We also noted that The Quint fact-checked this video last year and accessed the police’s general diary (GD) entry. The GD mentioned that the two women, both 19 and from Comilla District, had left their homes. After they were taken to police station, they said they had converted to Islam and refused to go home. As a result, the police sent them to the custody of court.

Therefore, from our above findings, it is clear that while the girls did convert to Islam from Hinduism, the viral claims of ‘Love Jihad’ or that they converted because they got married is false.