Old Photo From London Street Play Shared Claiming Taliban Is Selling Women

Taliban declared a complete seizure of Afghanistan's Kabul on 15 August, and the world is worried about how the Taliban rule will affect the rights of women living there. The USA withdrew its military troops from Afghanistan after 20 years of invasion, followed by the Taliban taking over its governance. Against this backdrop, the fear of women rights violation and repressive policies have risen.

Amidst this, a picture is viral on social media which shows chains tied on the wrists of two veiled women with a man who appears as their captor. The photo is shared, claiming that the Taliban, a radical militant group, is selling women as sex slaves.

The photo is widely shared on Twitter.

Shefali Vaidya, a right-wing idealogue, shared the photo on Twitter with the caption, "Of course women are free under Taliban. See, she has ALL the freedom to walk as far as the chain would allow her to."

The photo is widespread on Facebook with varied Hindi captions;

A Facebook user posted the photo withthe caption in Hindi, "इस तरह से नीलाम हो रही हैं औरतें तालिबान के राज में। कोई कहेगा, कि इक्कीसवीं सदी है?" (This is how women are being auctioned under the rule of the Taliban. Will someone say that's it is the 21st century?)

Another Facebook user posted the photo and captioned it in Hindi, "वक़्त बदलते देर नहीं लगती... जो मुस्लमान लोग बोल रहे थे कि हिन्दुओ की बहन,बेटी और बहु 2-2 दीनार मे बेची थी! अब उन लोगो की खुद की बहन बीवी बेटी उसी बाज़ार मे आज बिक रही हैं और वो खुद बेच रहे है उसी बाज़ार में !!भगवान के घर देर है अंधेर नहीं. ("Time doesn't take long to change...The Muslim people who were saying that they sold the sister, daughter and daughter-in-law of Hindus for 2-2 dinars! Now those people's own sister, wife & daughter are being sold in the same market today and they are selling them in the same market !! Har Har Mahadev.)

Claim:

Photo is of the Taliban selling women as sex slaves in Afghanistan.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact-check team verified the claim and found it to be false. The photo is from a street play performed in London in 2014.

We did a Google reverse image search of the photo, which led us to a UK based website, Telgraf. The article is headlined in Turkish, whose English translation reads, "Meaningful action against ISIS gangs in London (Video)."

The report stated that the youth set up the "ISIS women's market" in a theatrical style in front of the UK parliament to draw attention to the thousands of women that ISIS gangs kidnapped and sold in the markets.

The site published a report on 17 October 2014, which carried the same picture credited to Ari Murad.

Taking a clue from here, we searched for Ari Murad and came across his Facebook page that published a video on 1 March 2016. The 3-minute-long video has the same scenes as the shared photo and is titled "ISIS Sex Slave Market in London (Protest)." The video caption mentions the names of the people associated with the play.

'Compassion 4 Kurdistan', a group of the Kurdish diaspora, registered their protest by staging a street play at Leicester Square in London to create awareness about the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq's (ISIS) actions in Iraq.

The video's starting annexes some facts and figures related to ISIS and states, "This demonstration is intended to shock audiences into seeing ISIS and their brutality."

It is evident that an old photo from London's street play has been falsely linked with women in Taliban occupied Afghanistan. Although the Afghan women fear their rights violation and repressive policies, this photo is not of Afghanistan.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

Also Read: Woman Pilot Stoned To Death In Afghanistan? No, The Claim Is False!