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| - Fact Check: Is this woman wearing barbed wires in protest against Hathras incident?
Following the death of a 19-year-old girl from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, who was allegedly gang raped and tortured, netizens are outraged over the issue of women's safety and are taking to social media to express rage.
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India Today Fact Check
The woman is Janani Cooray, a multi-skilled artist from Colombo, Sri Lanka. This was her street performance in 2015 showcasing a traditional Sri Lankan dress called “Osariya”.
Following the death of a 19-year-old girl from Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, who was allegedly gang raped and tortured, netizens are outraged over the issue of women’s safety and are taking to social media to express rage.
Amid this, an image of a woman with her body covered with barbed wires and metal sheets has gone viral with the claim that she is protesting against the BJP government “because of its failure to ensure women’s safety”.
Several users have posted the picture on Twitter and Facebook along with a caption in Hindi translating to, “This image is a slap in the face of the Prime Minister and the BJP government whose sound can be heard across the world, but not by BJP supporters. In view of increasing rapes in India, this woman covered herself in a barbed wire to give out the message that women are not safe under the BJP government.”
, # ,
...! pic.twitter.com/Sm2tfqPgBk
— ADEEL KHAN (@ADEEL_KHAN_AZMI) September 30, 2020
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral image is in no way related to the women’s safety issue in India. The woman in the picture is Janani Cooray, a multi-skilled artist from Colombo, Sri Lanka. This was her street performance in 2015 showcasing a traditional Sri Lankan dress called “Osariya”.
Some verified Twitter handles have also shared the post. The archived versions can be seen here, here, here and here.
The truth
With the help of reverse image search, we found that the picture of the woman in barbed wires has been available on the Internet since 2015.
News website The Hans India in 2019 misled readers by associating the image with India and claimed that the woman was “displaying her anti-rape dress in steel barbed wire”.
We found a video of the woman in the same barbed wire walking down the streets with a smile, while people are taking her photos, on a Sinhalese YouTube channel. The clip, posted on February 13, 2020, has no more details apart from the title saying, “valentine day in sri lanka”.
In 2015, a blog site named ARTFARMSRILANKA published the viral photo in an article on Sri Lankan performing arts. The photo caption in the article says, “Traditional formal dress — of sheet metal and barbed wire!”
The photograph of the same woman in the same dress but in a different angle was published by several websites as a piece on bizarre fashions. But there were not many details available about the woman and nowhere was it claimed that the picture was from India.
Searching the Internet with a combination of reverse image and keyword search, we finally found the original source and details about the picture and the woman.
The woman in the viral image is Janani Cooray, a multi-skilled artist from Colombo. She is one of the first performing artists in Sri Lanka and a graduate of the University of Visual and Performing Arts.
As per her website, she had performed this unique art in 2015 in Colombo.
Cooray had posted several pictures and videos of this particular performance on her website, Facebook page, and on a YouTube channel. The artist had named this performance: “Osariya” Theertha performance platform, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2015”.
The artist explains that Osariya is a traditional Sri Lankan dress which “symbolises a limited set of behaviours”. “Sri Lankan women, including myself, will enter that set of limitations when dressed in Osariya,” she had written on her website about the performance.
Hence, it is confirmed that the viral picture of the woman covered in barbed wires has nothing to do with India or the recent outrage over crimes against women. The viral image is a five-year-old performance by a Sinhalese artist showcasing a traditional Sri Lankan.
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