A video from Bangladesh of a man wearing a female Muslim headscarf in an apparent bid to evade arrest has been falsely portrayed as an incident in Hindu-majority India. The claim was repeatedly shared in posts supporting the introduction of a common civil code, a goal shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s Hindu nationalist party but which some Muslims fear would encroach on their religious laws.
“The beautiful begum (Muslim woman) has a special need for a burqa,” read the Hindi-language caption to the video, in an apparently sarcastic reference to the man.
The video shows police officers taking the headscarf off the man and lifting up the abaya he was wearing to reveal several packages taped to his body.
“It’s under these burqas the Muslims smuggle weapons,” the July 25, 2024 Facebook post added. “That is why Uniform Civil Code has become a necessity.”
India has a common criminal law but rules on personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance vary based on the customary traditions of different communities and faiths.
Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has long pitched a uniform civil code as a way to improve gender equality as women’s rights in India vary considerably depending on which code they fall under (archived link).
But many communities, particularly Muslims, fear the legislation would encroach on their religious laws and see it as an attack on their identity and against India’s secular constitution.
The video was shared with similar false captions across Facebook and on social media site X.
However, the video was filmed in Bangladesh and not in India as the posts claimed.
Bangladesh arrest
A reverse image search on Google found the video published on a YouTube channel called Smile Tv Bangla on March 11, 2021 (archived link).
The video’s Bengali language caption read: “Two drug dealers were arrested in police raids while the boy pretended to be a pregnant woman, sent to jail.”
The incident took place in Raozan subdistrict of Bangladesh, according to the video description.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip shared in false posts (left) and the video posted by Smile Tv Bangla (right):
The clip shared in false posts corresponds to the 1:04 mark of the YouTube video (archived link).
A keyword search found local news reports on the arrest here and here which said the police detained a man and woman for smuggling drugs in Raozan in Chattogram district on March 9, 2021 (archived links here and here).
The man disguised himself as a pregnant woman to avoid arrest, the reports said.
AFP confirmed the footage was filmed in Raozan by comparing visual clues in the video with the Google Street View imagery from the area (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of a keyframe from the video published by Smile Tv Bangla (left) and the Google Street View imagery of Raozan, Chattogram district (right) with similarities highlighted by AFP:
AFP has previously debunked cross-border misinformation between India and Bangladesh here and here.
