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| - Fact Check: No, young shepherd in viral photo is not France's education minister
A collage of two photographs apparently depicting the struggle story of French politician Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is going viral on social media. The post claims that a young girl shepherd from Morocco grew up to be France's education minister 20 years later. India Today's Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the young girl in the first photograph is not Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.
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India Today Fact Check
The young girl in the image is not Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, but her name is Fouzia.
A collage of two photographs apparently depicting the struggle story of French politician Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is going viral on social media. The post claims that a young girl shepherd from Morocco grew up to be France’s education minister 20 years later.
Facebook user N H Partho was among many who posted the claim. Partho’s post was liked by more than 1,700 people and shared by scores of others at the time of filing this story.
India Today’s Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the young girl in the first photograph is not Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. Her name is Fouzia and she is a native of Al Haouz Province in Morocco.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
The viral post claims to show the past and present of Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a former education minister of France. The text on the image reads, 20 years ago she was herding sheep in Morocco, now she is France’s education minister.
On reverse search, we found that the photograph was clicked by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) photographer Giacomo Pirozzi in Morocco on June 15, 2005. Fouzia was eight years old at that time.
The photo was published in one of the editions of UNICEF’s Child Notice Morocco. One can see the original photograph on page number 26.
A spokesperson for UNICEF sent the original photograph to fact-check website Snopes
with the caption, Eight-year-old Fouzia rests on a stone in front of a herd of sheep in Tamezaghete village in the rural district of Iguerferouane in Al Haouz Province. Fouzia attended school for one year but had to drop out because her parents could not afford her books.
But it is true that Najat does have her roots in Morocco, where she used to accompany her grandfather while herding goats. In a radio interview in 2013, she recalled, I have memories in which I’m with my grandfather, minding the goats, for example; or where I’m fetching water from the well, because we didn’t have running water, or electricity for that matter.
Najat was the first French woman to serve as France’s education minister. She held the office from August 2014 to May 2017.
Thus, we conclude that though Najat admitted to herding goats in her childhood, the young girl in the viral image is not her.
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