A video claiming a Hindu woman in Bangladesh was harassed and not allowed to board a bus by members of the Muslim community, for not wearing a burqa during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan is false and scripted.
BOOM found that the video was staged by actors and does not show a real incident from Bangladesh as being claimed.
In the 22-second video, a woman can be seen arguing with a bus conductor who initially refuses to let her board the bus claiming she is not wearing a burqa. The conductor later also asks the woman to get off from the bus for the same reason.
The video is being shared with a caption, "So now Hindus are being forced to wear Burqa? In Bangladesh, during the month of Ramadan, unveiled Hindu women who do not wear burqa are not being allowed to travel in buses. Let's see how the Kolkata communists and liberals defend their favourite country. Similar incident had happened in Kerala also last year. No women’s rights? If you have knowledge of any such incident happening anywhere in India, please mention."
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The video is also being peddled with a Hindi caption that translates to, "In Bangladesh, a Hindu woman who did not wear a burqa was not allowed to travel in a bus during the holy Ramzan. And in India, there should be so much freedom that no color should play even if the temple bell rings loudly."
(Original Text in Hindi: बांग्लादेश में पवित्र रमज़ान के दौरान बुर्का न पहनने वाली हिंदू महिला को बस में यात्रा करने की अनुमति नहीं दी गई।और भारत में इतनी आज़ादी चाहिए की तेज मंदिर का घंटा ना बजे कोई रंग ना खेले।)
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Fact Check
BOOM ran a keyword search in Bangla and found several posts with a longer version of the same video, with the text making a similar claim as in the viral posts.
We also noticed that in some of the posts a logo of a red and yellow 'V' was visble in the top right corner of the video.
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A related keyword search led us to a Facebook page 'Cartoon Show' where the video was posted. However, we observed that the profile picture of the Facebook page displays the name 'Valo 24' instead of 'Cartoon Show'.
We then also found that some of the videos posted by the Facebook page on YouTube, uploaded by a channel called 'Valo 24'.
Some of these videos carried the same red and yellow 'V' logo as in the viral video.
The same woman featured in the viral video can be identified in other videos posted by the YouTube channel and Facebook page. We also found the woman in another scripted video where she can be seen wearing the same clothes as in the viral video.
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Moreover, we noticed that the videos on YouTube were uploaded with a disclaimer, "This is an educational short film, Exhortational short film, Social short film. love kolkata channel uploads all educational short films of our ongoing life happenings. All our stories are fictional. So if our story matches someone's life. Then we apologize to them. All our stories are created to entertain you. If you get some entertainment from our story. Then making our dramas will be worthwhile. And if you like our plays. Then definitely _ Like / Comment / Share & Subscribe our valo 24 channel. thank you".
We observed that the man and woman, who portrayed themselves as a passenger and a bus conductor in the viral video, also did a Facebook Live on March 19, 2024, mentioning in the caption that they were filming a video.
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During the Facebook Live, both actors can be heard discussing their film shoot and showing their filming location.
Below is a comparison of the scenes from the viral video with those featuring the man and woman discussing their film shoot during the Facebook Live.
