Old video shared with false claim that Karnataka govt has revoked hijab ban

by Oishani Bhattacharya

A video is viral on social media in which one can see several burqa-clad women walk through a gate even as they are hailed or heckled by some people. A police official can be seen in the video directing the women to walk. The video is being shared with the claim that the Karnataka government has lifted the ban on wearing hijab inside educational campuses and hence, women are entering a university in Karnataka dressed in hijabs.

Twitter user @Aafrin7866, who has over 24,000 followers, shared the video on May 22 with the claim that hijab was now allowed in all Karnataka colleges. The user also tagged the newly elected chief minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar and Rahul Gandhi, thanking them for the same. The tweet has received over 30,000 views and has been retweeted over 160 times. (Archive)

Another user, @putin_pandit, shared the same video on the same day with a similar claim. The caption in Hindi can be translated to: “From today onwards there will be no ban on wearing hijab in any Karnataka college”. The tweet has received over 22,000 views and has been retweeted over 400 times. (Archive)

@ShihabChoturfan, whose Twitter bio says the account is a parody fan page of YouTuber Shihab Chottur, also shared the video in question with a similar claim and the tweet has received over 18,000 views and has been retweeted over 150 times. Shihab Chottur is a man from Kerala who last year set out on a journey to Mecca on foot to perform Haj. (Archive)

More such posts with similar claims can be found below:

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Fact Check

Under @ShihabChoturfan‘s tweet, we came across a few comments that said the video was old and some even mentioned that the video was from the time when the hijab ban controversy erupted in Karnataka.

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Further, we broke down the video into several key-frames and ran a reverse image search on a few of them, which led us to several social media posts. We noticed that all these posts were made in February 2022.

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This proves that the video is old and not recent as claimed in the viral posts.

In February 2022, a college in Karnataka banned hijab inside classrooms and then the BJP government issued an order to ban hijab saying that “any clothing that would disturb equality, integrity and public law and order” will not be allowed. The order was challenged and the Karnataka high court upheld it. The matter was again challenged in Supreme Court and the apex court passed a split verdict in October 2022. The court has said that it will consider listing the plea in front of a three-judge bench.

On May 23, Amnesty India appealed to the newly formed Congress-led Karnataka government to revoke the hijab ban. (Archive)

Responding to the same matter, state minister G Parameshwara told ANI, “We will see in future what best we can do. Right now, we have to fulfil the five guarantees we made to the people of Karnataka”. (Archive)

Besides, there was no available news report that suggested that the Karnataka government had lifted the ban.

Therefore, the viral claims around the said video, that the Congress-led government in Karnataka has lifted the ban on hijab, are false.

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