As the fight for women's entry into the Sabarimala temple, despite a Supreme Court order, reaches a feverish pitch, satire articles and fake photos have jumped into the melee as well.
With the Kerala government organising a women's wall on 1 January to strengthen its fight towards women's equality in the society, several photos from the event went viral, giving miscreants the opportunity to tamper with them, thus, changing the narrative.
One such viral photo was that of two women, one clad in a burqa, holding placards. The one held by the burqa-clad woman read, "Brahminical Patriarchy Down Down".
The photo was also re-tweeted by actor Koena Mitra, who questioned the involvement of Muslim women in the formation of a wall that was made for the purpose of the Sabarimala temple.
Soon enough, photoshopped versions of the original image began to crop up on the internet, with different narratives written on the placards.
One photoshopped picture made it seem as though the burqa clad woman was advocating equal rights from Muslim women, asking to enter masjids and 'stop Muslim men patriarchy'.
The other woman in the photo was seen holding a placard that read "We support her fully" – CPI(M) workers, with an arrow pointing at the burqa-clad woman.
Another photo showed the burqa-clad woman holding a placard which supposedly read "Ram Lalla Hum Ayenge, Mandir Wahin Banayenge" (Translated: Ram lalla we will come, we will build the temple there), in a reference to the ongoing tussle in Ayodhya over the Ram Mandir issue.
Yet another photoshopped image showed the burqa-clad woman holding a placard that read "Jai Shree Ram".
The tweet along with the photo read "Muslim Women Form A 620km Long Queue To Pass Bricks For Constructing Ram Mandir", with a link to an article.
The article, published by one thefauxy.com, states that the wall was sponsored by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and that the volunteers had promised they won’t move an inch till the temple was constructed.
The article further claimed that the wall was built to raise the demand for a Ram temple in Ayodhya before the 2019 general elections, and that the women who were part of the wall would pass bricks along the 620 km-long line for the construction of the temple.
However, when one scrolls down to the bottom of the page, the disclaimer clearly mentions that TheFauxy is a satire web portal, and must not be confused for genuine news.
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