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| - Fact Check: Old, unrelated images used to claim women are being auctioned in Afghanistan
Two images, one of a group of women mourning and the other purportedly showing some men lounging around and taking pictures of a girl, are circulating on social media with the claim that they depict women being auctioned off on the streets of Afghanistan.
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India Today Fact Check
The first image is from the 2015 funeral of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was mob-lynched in Kabul for allegedly burning the Quran. The second image is at least nine years old and shows a boy who was used for child prostitution in Afghanistan.
Two images, one of a group of women mourning and the other purportedly showing some men sitting around and clicking pictures of a girl, are circulating on social media with the claim that they show women being auctioned on the streets of Afghanistan.
The claim further says the auctions are being held for a deposit amount of only $25.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim along with the images to be misleading. The first image was taken in 2015 at the funeral of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was mob-lynched in Kabul for allegedly burning the Quran. The second image is at least nine years old and shows a boy who was used for child prostitution in Afghanistan.
Using Google reverse image search, we found that the picture of mourning women was carried in several news reports in 2015 with credits to Associated Press.
According to a BBC report published on March 22, 2015, the picture shows women’s rights and civil society activists helping to bury Farkhunda Malikzada, a woman who was mob-lynched in Kabul for allegedly burning the Quran.
We also found the same image on the website of Associated Press.
An official investigation later found that there was no proof against Farkhunda and the allegation was false. Hundreds of people had gathered for the 27-year-old woman’s funeral. The incident was heavily criticised, with human rights groups questioning the safety of women in Afghanistan.
Recently, though there have been reports of Taliban forcibly marrying women, we could not find credible sources saying women are being auctioned off by the group.
The second picture has also been carried in several media reports over the years on the practice of “bacha bazi” or sexual slavery and abuse of minor boys in Afghanistan.
“Bacha bazi” is a centuries-old exploitative practice in Afghanistan where rich and powerful old men buy adolescent boys for sex and entertainment, where they dress as women and dance.
On further search, we found the same picture along with other similar images in a post uploaded in September 2012 by Facebook page “The Photographers Giving Back Award”. According to the post, the pictures were taken by Martin von Krogh of Swedish newspaper “Expressen” and show “bacha bazi” in Afghanistan.
The same set of images was also uploaded on Flickr in 2012 by “The Photographers Giving Back Award”. Krogh was won a number of awards for his works on child prostitution in Afghanistan.
We also found an interview of Krogh where he explains the background story of the viral image.
In the interview, Krogh said he, along with his reporter colleague who was investigating “bacha bazi”, met the boy in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The 15-year-old boy was introduced to Krogh by a man who said he was the minor’s dance teacher.
Therefore, we can conclude that the claim along with the pictures is misleading. All fact-check stories around Afghanistan by AFWA can be accessed here.
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