Iran Hijab row: Turkish TV drama scene shared as man dancing at daughter’s last rites

On September 13, Iran’s ‘Morality Police’ arrested 22-year-old Mahsa Amini from Tehran for not wearing her hijab according to official dictates. Mehsa Amini died three days later, allegedly in police custody, on September 16. Following the incident, protests have been raging across Iran. According to a report by the Iran Human Rights Organization, 75 protesters have been killed by security forces so far.

Against this backdrop, a video of some people standing with coffins on their shoulders with a dancing elderly man in front of them is viral on social media. It is being claimed that a father had promised his daughter that he would dance at her wedding, but is now dancing on her grave. The daughter was purportedly killed by the Iranian regime for protesting against the killing of civilians over how they wore their hijabs.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Quraishi shared the video, claiming that the man seen dancing in front of the coffin in the video was the father of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody has sparked protests in Iran. (Archived link)

One of the saddest things you’ll see: #MahsaAmini‘s father dancing for his 22 year old daughter at her grave. She insisted he promise to dance on her wedding. He’s keeping his promise.#IranProtests2022 #IranRevolutionpic.twitter.com/ToYw61uzCp

— Ahmed Quraishi (@_AhmedQuraishi) October 1, 2022

Another user tweeted the video with a similar claim. It garnered over 4.5 lakh views as of this writing. (Archived link)

Heartbreaking 💔
Iranian father who promised to live long enough to dance at his daughter’s wedding ends up dancing at her funeral after she was killed by the Iranian morality police for not covering her hair#IranRevolution2022 #مهسا_امینی #koyapic.twitter.com/t8POVJiR4j

— Shukri Hamk (@Sh_q_y) September 28, 2022

Another user named Pallavi amplified the video claiming that it featured the father of a woman who was killed for protesting against the killing of civilians over hijabs. (Archived link)

The video is attracting a lot of traction on social media platforms in several countries. JK Rowling, author of the popular fantasy novel series Harry Potter, also retweeted the clip.

Fact-check

Alt News performed a keyword search related to the viral video, and found a tweet posted by Iran’s official news channel Press TV. In this tweet, the outlet dismissed the viral claim and added that this video was part of a Turkish drama named Ata Ocaği.

J. K Rowling has retweeted a fake viral video purportedly showing an Iranian father’s dance on the grave of his daughter who was killed in recent riots in Iran. In fact the video is part of a Turkish drama called Ata Ocaği. pic.twitter.com/Pfo4qvm0kh

— Press TV (@PressTV) September 30, 2022

This is a scene from the 78th episode of the Turkish drama Ata Ocaği. This video was uploaded on YouTube by a channel named Xəzər TV on January 9, 2018. Scenes from the viral video appear here between the 19:26 and 20:18 mark.

To sum it up, several social media users mistakenly shared a video of a Turkish drama with the false claim that the man dancing in front of a coffin was the father of a woman killed in the ongoing protests over the hijab in Iran.