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Woman Pilot Stoned To Death In Afghanistan? No, The Claim Is False!
Writer: Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
India, 20 Aug 2021 10:52 AM GMT | Updated 5 Aug 2022 1:15 AM GMT
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As the founding editor, Bharat had been heading the newsroom during the formation years of the organization and worked towards editorial policies, conceptualizing and designing campaign strategies and collaborations. He believes that through the use of digital media, one could engage the millennial's in rational conversations about pertinent social issues, provoking them to think and bring a behavioral change accordingly.
Creatives : Jakir Hassan
A journalist at heart loves the in-depth work of reporting, writing, editing, research, and data analysis. A digital and social media enthusiast.
An old photo of Farkhunda Malikzada, who was mob lynched in Afghanistan in 2015, is falsely passed off as Afghan woman pilot Safia Ferozi.
A photo that purports to show that an Afghan woman pilot has been stoned to death is viral on social media. The picture shows a bloodied woman dressed in black and besieged by men. Netizens identify the woman as Safia Ferozi- the second woman pilot recruited in Afghanistan's air force.
The photo went viral in the backdrop of rising concerns regarding women's rights after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan governance.
A Twitter user, Eugene Sangeet Sagar (@SangeetSagar13), shared the photo and captioned, "Safiya Firozi, one of the four lady pilots of the Afghan Air Force. Stoned to death in public this morning." However, the user took down the Tweet, but a screengrab of his tweet began circulating on social media.
[Trigger Warning: Graphic Image]
The screengrab of Eugene Sangeet Sagar's tweet is widespread on Facebook with varied captions;
Similar claims have been made on Twitter as well.
Claim:
Afghanistan's second woman pilot, Safia Ferozi, has been stoned to death.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian fact-check verified the claim and found it false. It is an old photo of a woman identified as Farkhunda Malikzada, who was lynched in 2015 in Afghanistan.
We did a reverse image search of the viral photo and found a Wikipedia page, 'Murder of Farkhunda Malikzada', which carried the same viral photo.
Then we Google searched for Farkhunda Malikzada and came across a few news articles that reported the incident. According to a BBC report, she was falsely accused of burning pages of the Islamic holy book Quran and lynched by a frantic mob of over 100 men. After the investigation, the accusations against Farkhunda were found false, and 49 men, including 19 police officers, were arrested for her murder.
We also found a New York Times video report published on 26 December 2015 headlined, "The Killing Of Farkhunda" [Trigger Warning: Graphic Video]. The video contains visuals of violence and atrocities against Farkhunda, and at a 4-minute mark, the frame has an exact match for the photo that is viral now.
Due to the graphic nature of the viral video, The Logical Indian is not sharing it.
We also looked for recent news reports related to Safia Ferozi but could not find any. But we came across an NBC News report published on 7 December 2015, which described her as the second woman pilot recruited in Afghanistan's air force.
Therefore, it is evident that the photo passed off claiming to be of an Afghan woman pilot is old. The woman in the picture is Farkhunda Malikzada, who was lynched by a mob in Afghanistan in 2015.
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: Viral Image Of Burqa-Clad Women In Chains Walking Behind Man Is Morphed
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