A picture of an Afghanistan news anchor sitting with her face covered in a burqa is being shared with a false sarcastic claim that she is a Qatar based news anchor expressing concern about religious freedom in India.
BOOM found that the claim with the image to be false. The photograph shows TV anchor Khatereh Ahmadi with TOLOnews in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 22, 2022.
Recently protests have been held across states after now suspensed Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nupur Sharma made derogatory remarks against Propher Mohammed. Several Arab countries including Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also registered their protests with the Indian government over remarks made by now BJP leaders Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal against the Prophet Mohammad. Following heavy backlash, the BJP distanced themselves from the comments and also expelled Jindal and suspended Sharma from the party. Sharma and Jindal have received support from many right wing and right leaning outlets.
The viral image is being shared with a claim, "Qatari Anchor Fatima Shaikh on national TV expressing concern about religious freedom in India."
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a reverse image search and found the same photo in story published by NPR on May 24, 2022.
The caption in the NPR story reads, "TV anchor Khatereh Ahmadi bows her head while wearing a face covering as she reads the news on TOLOnews, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. The Taliban has started enforcing an order requiring female anchors to cover their faces while on air."
Screengrab From NPR Report
The photo credit has been given to Ebrahim Noroozi on behalf of international news agency Associated Press. Taking a cue, we did a keyword search and found the photo on Associated Press's website with the same caption.
The caption identified the female anchor as Khatereh Ahmadi with TOLOnews, a channel based in Kabul, Afghanistan. We also found other photos of journalist Khatereh Ahmadi from the same date on Associated Press's website where a portion of her face is visible behind the burqa.
According to an Al Jazeera article published on May 8, 2021, the Taliban which took over Afghanistan recently ordered that all women need to wear a hijab or a headscarf and added that, "the chadori (the blue-coloured Afghan burqa or full-body veil) as the "best hijab" of choice."
TOLONews where Ahmadi works and where the viral photo was clicked also tweeted about the same saying, "The Islamic Emirate in a new order demanded all female presenters working in all TV channels to cover their faces while presenting programs..."
Additionally a search for a Qatar based news anchor Fatima Shaikh did not yield any concrete results.
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