Video of Kabul activists reeacting Farkhunda Malikzada’s killing shared with misleading claim

After multiple educational institutes in Karnataka announced a ban on the hijab, Muslim students have been protesting for their right to education. There have also been reports of violence as counter anti-hijab protests were held by Hindu students. The matter is currently sub judice in the Karnataka High Court.

Against this backdrop, a video of a group of men lynching a burqa-clad woman has gone viral on social media platforms. As the woman tries to reason with the men, more of them join to brutality thrash her.

Dr Omendra Ratnoo who is followed by BJP leader Kapil Mishra tweeted the clip. (Archive link)

इसे कहते हैं मर्दानगी ।

समाज हो तो ऐसा हो । pic.twitter.com/VNaNMBFDJ1

— Dr Omendra Ratnu (@satyanveshan) February 14, 2022

The visuals are also being shared on Facebook.

Alt News found that the video has been circulating on the internet since 2015 with a caption in Urdu.

Old video of a street play in Afghanistan

We searched for the text that appears on certain stills in the video, which led us to an instance of the video posted in 2016 on Facebook. We noticed that a user shared a link to a YouTube video in the comments.

A YouTube channel named ‘Storyful News & Weather’ had uploaded this clip on April 27, 2015. It says that activists in Kabul dramatized the killing of Farkhunda Malikzada. The video has been attributed to ‘Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’ in the caption.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty stated that Afghan activists in Kabul reenacted the killing of Farkhunda on April 27, 2015. They performed the play in protest against the brutality, demanding that the assailants be brought to justice immediately. Islamic law student Farkhunda Malikzada, 27, was lynched by a mob of men who believed that she had burnt a copy of the Quran. More than 40 people were arrested in connection with the violence.

According to a media report, the allegation that Farkhunda had set ablaze a copy of the Quran was later proven to be false.

To sum it up, the viral video of a burqa-clad woman being beaten by a group of men is six years old and was taken from a dramatised play on the killing of Afghan student Farkhunda Malikzada at the hands of a mob.