Uncle-niece video goes viral with false claims and Islamophobic comments

A video is going viral on social media showing a man dressed in groom’s attire sitting and speaking with a young girl, estimated to be 5–7 years old. In the clip, he is also seen kissing the child on the cheek. Several users have shared the video with communal and Islamophobic claims, alleging that a Muslim man is forcibly performing nikah (marriage) with a minor.

Sharing the clip, Radharamn Das, vice president and spokesperson of ISKCON Kolkata, claimed that at an age when a child should be playing with toys, she is being handed over to a “pedophile” who would treat her as a “sex toy.” He further alleged that even in the 21st century, such practices were being permitted in the name of religion while society remains a silent spectator. (Archive)

Readers should note that Radharamn Das has a record of sharing misinformation and communal propaganda. The extent of this was evident after the June 2023 Balasore train accident, when he circulated an image of an ISKCON temple located near the railway tracks and falsely identified it as a mosque, insinuating that the tragedy had been engineered by Muslims. The claim was not just baseless, but strikingly incongruous, coming from a senior functionary of ISKCON Kolkata misidentifying his own organisation’s temple to push a communal narrative.

Similarly, an account named InesDelAlmaMia shared the video with a Spanish caption, describing it as “utterly repulsive” and claiming that the young girl’s expression shows she is being robbed of her childhood and innocence. The post further questions why such men “choose young girls instead of marrying adult women,” reinforcing the false and misleading narrative around the clip. (Archive)

¿Cultura o crímen?

Sencillamente asqueroso 🤢, la cara de la niña lo dice todo, le están robando su infancia, su inocencia 😭

Cobardes enfermos, porque no se casan con una mujer de verdad, porque eligen niñas 🤬 pic.twitter.com/gU7LJaljCH

— 𝐈𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐀𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐌𝐢𝐚 (@InesBetancur1) April 22, 2026

Jim McMurtry, a candidate from the right-wing Conservative Party OneBC representing Delta South in British Columbia, also shared the video. In an Islamophobic remark, he claimed that while pedophilia or child sexual abuse is considered wrong on Epstein Island, it is not viewed as wrong within Islam, thereby amplifying the same false and misleading narrative around the clip. (Archive)

Several Right-wing influencers such as Amit, who is often found making Islamophobic comments, The Jaipur Dialogues, and Rakesh Kishore also shared or quoted this video with an Islamophobic tone.

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Fact Check

To verify the claim, we conducted a Google Reverse Image Search on keyframes from the viral video. This led us to the YouTube Shorts section of a channel named “Rukhsar Fatima,” where the clip had been uploaded on April 20. The video’s caption explicitly identifies the two individuals as “maternal uncle and niece.”

Additionally, an overlay text in the video reads: “A niece is not just the first daughter to her parents, but also to her maternal uncle.” This clearly indicates that the individuals share a familial relationship, and not that of a bride and groom.

Therefore, the viral claim that the video shows a Muslim man performing nikah with a minor is false and based on a misrepresentation of the footage.

Furthermore, the viral clip carries an Instagram watermark (@rukhsar_mulla20). Upon examining this account, we found multiple videos featuring the same child and the man seen in the clip. A closer look indicates that the account is managed by the child’s mother.

The individual dressed as a groom is, in fact, the child’s maternal uncle. In another video posted on the same account, the girl is seen arranging wedding cards, with the caption “Bhai ki shaadi vibes” (brother’s wedding vibes). This makes it clear that the occasion was a family wedding—specifically, the marriage of the child’s maternal uncle.

We also found additional wedding videos on the same Instagram account. In one such video, the man is seen seated with his wife, and the caption reads, “Angoothi dhundhne ki rasam” (the ring-finding ritual)—a customary ceremony performed by the bride and groom during wedding celebrations.

This serves as clear evidence that the man is married to an adult woman, and not to the young girl seen in the viral clip. It conclusively establishes that the child is not the bride and that the claim being circulated online is false.

We also located the profile of Zeeshan, the man seen in the viral video. His profile picture features a photograph of himself with his wife, further confirming that he is married to an adult woman.

Additionally, an image from the same location visible in the viral clip appears in the highlights section of his sister’s Instagram account (@rukhsar_mulla20), captioned “Bhai ki Shaadi” (brother’s wedding). This corroborates that the video was recorded during a family wedding, and not a child marriage ceremony as falsely claimed.

To sum up, the claim being circulated on social media is completely false. The young girl seen alongside the groom in the viral video is not his bride, but his niece.

An affectionate moment between a maternal uncle and his niece has been taken out of context and framed with Islamophobic commentary to falsely suggest that the child is being married. In reality, the video captures a family wedding setting, and the girl visible in the clip is not the bride.