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| - A video showing a group of men making announcements in Bangla is being shared on social media platforms.
Those sharing have claimed that women in Bangladesh are banned from going to markets, and Hindu shops are supposed to be closed on Muslim festivals.
Who shared it?: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly Agnimitra Paul shared the claim on her official X page.
News outlet NewsX also published an article on the same. You can view the archive here.
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
Is the claim true?: The claim is misleading.
The video is from Gopalganj, Bangladesh. The declaration was made at the Gawhardanga Madrasa for the Waz Mahfil, a religious event for Islamic sermons.
While the announcement did mention that women were not permitted to enter the area, it was a temporary instruction.
It did not mention anything about Hindu shopkeepers.
What we found: We divided the video into multiple keyframes and ran a Google and Yandex reverse image search on some of them.
We came across the video on the Facebook page of Singipara every day which was uploaded on . The bio of this account was listed as a "Journalist" from Gopalganj.
The user's post noted, "The 89th annual Waz Mahfil of Gowhardanga Madrasa is going to start from tomorrow. Smahfil announcement from the Madrasa authorities for the shopkeepers coming to the mahfil." (translated from Bangla to English)
We searched for the madrasa on Google and came across its Facebook page. We found a Jamuna TV report on the page which aimed at debunking the misleading claims about the alleged rule for women not being allowed to visit markets. It included the statement of Mufti Usama Amin, Deputy Principal of Gawhardanga Madrasa.
The post said noted that the video featured an announcement from the Madrasa for the 89th Waz Mahfil which was held for three days between 27 and 29 November. It also said that the place in the video was not a market but some temporary shops.
There are different arrangements made for Muslim women to attend this event. Some decisions have been taken to "maintain security and discipline with the joint advice of organisation authorities and locals in this gathering".
The post condemned the misleading claims about the video which aimed at disturbing communal harmony and the diplomatic ties between India and Bangladesh.
What is Waz Mahfil?: We spoke to a Bangladeshi journalist who told us that Mahfil was a public place where Muslims gather to receive Islamic advice, guidance, knowledge, and counsel. Here, an Islamic speaker or preacher delivers a sermon to a large audience.
Contents of the announcement: The Quint independently transcribed the contents of the announcement (translated from Bangla to English) which was:
"Don’t sell things to women. This is not a place of sin. Don’t sell poultry. Make sure there is no gambling in the market. If such sinful groups come here, we will try and stop them but, if they don’t leave, we will go to higher authority. Every shop must have a purdah. At the time of prayer the purdah must be brought down. There should be no trade at the time of prayer. If any woman comes, we will try to make them understand kindly to leave. This is not a market or mela. It is Deen-e-Mahfil. We will not sell any items which are considered illegal in Islam. This announcement is coming from our Madrassa. It is Deen-e-Mahfil, but, we have all here to learn livelihood, but will only indulge in Halal business."
Further, we found no mention of Hindu shop owners in the announcement.
Additionally, no formal document or legislation has come from the Interim Bangladesh Government which prohibits women from going to the markets.
Conclusion: A misleading claim went viral that a rule was enacted that women were not allowed to go to markets and Hindu shops should be closed at the time of Muslim festivals.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on , or e-mail it to us at and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories .)
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