A photo that purports to show a burqa-clad woman holding a placard voicing support for a burqa ban has been shared thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook in Sri Lanka. But the photo has been doctored to include a manipulated placard; the original image shows an anti-citizenship law protester in India in 2019.
The photo was published here on Facebook on February 21, 2020. It has been shared more than 5,600 times.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:
The post's Sinhala-language caption translates to English as: "The objection to the burqa should come from within the Islam female, not the Sinhala Buddhist male."
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The post was published within days of the Sri Lanka Parliamentary Committee on National Security recommending an immediate ban on the burqa.
The burqa became a talking point in Sri Lanka following the Easter bombings of April 2019 where over 270 locals and tourists were killed in a series of targetted suicide bombings at churches and luxury hotels in the capital. Following the attacks, a temporary ban was enforced against wearing the burqa but it was lifted in September 2019.
The photo was also shared on Facebook here, here and here alongside a similar claim.
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This claim is false; this is a doctored photo of an anti-citizenship law protester in India taken in 2019. The slogan on the placard has been manipulated from its original to show an anti-burqa message.
A Google reverse image search of the photo in the misleading post found this article by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published on December 19, 2019. The headline reads: "Indian Police Ban Protests Amid Citizenship Law Outrage".
The report features a higher resolution version of the photo in the misleading Facebook post, credited to Associated Press.
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Below is a screenshot of the photo in the Haaretz report:
A further search on the AP Image website found the photo was taken on December 19, 2019 in Mumbai, India by photographer Rajanish Kakade.
Below is a screenshot of the photo on the AP Images website:
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading Facebook post (L) and the AP Images photo (R):
A wave of violent protests broke out across India in late 2019 after a new citizenship law, which grants citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, was passed by the Indian government. Here is an AFP report on the protests.