Media Houses Share Old Video as 'Recent Incident of Flogging in Afghanistan'

Taliban has imposed severe restrictions on women, but this video could be traced back to at least 2018.

Several news organisations shared a video that shows public flogging of women with a claim that it is a recent incident from Afghanistan.

What does the claim state?: The claim suggests that the video shows members of the Taliban punishing women for stepping out and shopping without male ‘guardians’ in Afghanistan.

Who all shared it?: This was reported by Times Now, ABP Live, Mirror Now, OneIndia News, Firstpost, NDTV, Outlook, and News18.

• All the reports included a tweet by a Twitter user, Shabnam Nasimi, which carried the viral video.

• The video has garnered over three million views on Twitter at the time of writing this story.

So, what's the fact?: We could trace the video back to at least 2018.

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How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on Yandex, a Russian search engine, and found a news report from 2018 which carried the same viral video.

• A report by an Iran state-controlled media, ParsToday, mentioned that members of the Taliban group were punishing two women who were talking on the phone in Qizil, Afghanistan.

• Another report by the same news outlet from 19 November 2019 also carried the same video. This report stated that the members of the Taliban group were punishing the women who stepped out of their house.

• We have not being able to independently verify the video but the fact that it has been on the internet since 2018 makes it clear that it is not a recent incident.

Condition of women in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan: Since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, women have been systematically removed from public spaces in the country.

• Women no longer hold any cabinet positions.

• The Taliban has banned girls from attending school post sixth grade.

• Women aren't allowed to work outside their homes.

• Women are also barred from going long distances without a male chaperone.

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