A video showing a burqa-clad woman sitting with an elderly man in a skullcap is viral across social media platforms. In the video, the elderly man refers to the girl as his former daughter-in-law and claims they performed “halala” in accordance with Islam. “Halala” is a controversial Islamic marriage practice, according to which, a divorced woman must marry or consummate with another man before remarrying her former husband.
The woman, who says she is 22 years old, later proclaims that after the “halala,” she doesn’t want to get back with her ex-husband and wants to instead continue living with her 60-year-old father-in-law. Social media users sharing the video took a dig at the two and at the Muslim community, for such practices.
X user Deepika Narayan Bharadwaj (@DeepikaBhardwaj), who claims she is a men’s rights activist and journalist, shared the video and remarked that the two individuals in the video kept repeating they were following the words of Allah. (Archive)
Another X user, Dilip Kumar Singh (@DilipKu24388061), shared this video on May 18 with a sarcastic comment that strange things happen in the name of god in a certain community. (Archive)
एक मजहब की गजब कहानी
अल्लाह के नाम पर मनपसंद काम होता है😇 pic.twitter.com/kh8SdlaFDC
— Dilip Kumar Singh (@DilipKu24388061) May 18, 2025
Another X user, Abhay Pratp Singh (@IAbhay_Pratap), also shared the video and asked whether such relations are allowed and religiously acknowledged. (Archive)
– शौहर ने तलाक दे दिया तो ससुर ने हलाला किया
– अब ससुर उसे तलाक नहीं दे रहा है
– बेगम भी कह रही है कि अब उसे शौहर पसंद नहीं है
– अब ससुर की ही बेगम बनकर रहेगीक्या ऐसा सच में होता है ? ऐसा नहीं हो सकता शायद. कोई कन्फर्म करेगा ?pic.twitter.com/NCPPittWYC
— Abhay Pratap Singh (बहुत सरल हूं) (@IAbhay_Pratap) May 20, 2025
Fact Check
A reverse image search on a few key frames led us to a seven-minute-long video, uploaded on YouTube by user Ashwini Pandey.
The now-viral clip is part of this video and appears at the very beginning. At the 00:06-minute mark of the YouTube video, a disclaimer, which appears for barely a second, mentions that the video is made for entertainment purposes only.
However, the viral video, clipped from this longer version, does not carry the disclaimer.
While going through the content posted by this channel, Alt News found several similar videos of relationships that are otherwise considered taboo.
In one such video, uploaded on May 5, a woman wearing sindoor (a vermilion powder used by many married Hindu women), claims that she married her father-in-law because they fell in love. In this video, the disclaimer appears at the 00:09-minute mark.
Another scripted video showed a crying woman, pointing at an elderly man and accusing him of doing wrong by her. Meanwhile, the man dressed in black, adorning a black tilak and beads, says that he “treated” the woman to help her conceive. In this video, at the 00:04-minute mark, a similar disclaimer appears.
Similarly, in another scripted video, a girl wearing sindoor allegedly married her uncle. In this video, the disclaimer appears at the 00:08-minute mark for a fraction of a second.
To sum up, the viral video is scripted and has been wrongly labelled a real incident.
Independent journalism that speaks truth to power and is free of corporate and political control is possible only when people start contributing towards the same. Please consider donating towards this endeavour to fight fake news and misinformation.
