No, This Video Does Not Show a Real Incident of ISIS Selling Women in Market

We found that the video could be traced back to August 2023 and is part of a staged live performance in Iraq.

Fact-Check | The video is actually from a street play and does not show a real incident.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video which shows a man lifting the veil of several burqa-clad women is being shared on the internet to claim that it shows Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) selling Yazidi women in a slave market in Iraq and Syria.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

The video had over three lakh views on the platform. (More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.)

What is the truth?: The video is from a street play named 'The Unheard Screams Of The Ezidkhan Angels' and was shot in Iraq.

How did we find that out?: We performed a Google Lens search and found an old Instagram post that carried the same video. It was shared on 7 May 2023 by an account named 'skykurdish'.

• The post's caption mentioned another Instagram account called '@aryan.rafiq.artway'.

The post was shared on 7 May 2023.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

• On checking Rafiq's handle, we found a video uploaded on 3 August 2023 that showed similar visuals as the viral clip.

• The caption of the video mentioned that it was a live performance named 'The Unheard Screams Of The Ezidkhan Angels' that was performed on 7 March 2023.

• It also carried the names of people who were seen in the video and carried a hashtag that said '#erbil'.

Comparing the visuals: Team WebQoof compared several keyframes from the viral video to the longer clip shared by Rafiq on Instagram and found that both of them are from the same performance.

A comparison clearly highlights the similarities.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)

Actor seen in the viral video: On going through the names mentioned in the cast, we found an Instagram handle of the person named 'Sami Al- Ali'.

• On comparing pictures of Ali with the long-haired person seen in the viral video, we found that it was him who played the character.

It is clear that it was Ali, who was seen in the viral video.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)

Geolocating the place: A further search on Rafiq's account helped us to locate the place where the performance was shot. The location was identified as 'Erbil Citadel' in Iraq.

• We found a photo on Google Maps from the location captured in 2020, that carried some similarities as the viral video.

A comparison highlights the similar structure in both visuals.

(Source: Google Maps/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)

• We have reached out to Rafiq on their Instagram handle and this report will be updated if and when we receive a response.

Conclusion: It is clear that the video is being shared with a misleading claim as it is from a street play and does not show a real incident.

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