Video From Morocco Shared With Communal Spin In India

A nearly four-year-old video from Morocco showing a group of men harass a woman in the middle of a street, has been revived with a false claim that the video is from India and the men in question are Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh /Bharatiya Janata Party affiliates.

The clip has been shared on social media with different captions all claiming that the video is from India and the group of men seen in it are right wing extremists.

The 30-second long video clip shows the men ambush the woman with a powdery substance and some liquid and even pull her hijab. They continue to harass her even as she screams and tries to fend them off.

The same video was recently tweeted by Lord Nazir Ahmed, member of British House of Lords. Ahmed, however, deleted the tweet but not before BOOM had archived it.

Fact Check

BOOM ran a reverse image search on a few key-frames from the video and found articles from 2015 that carried the same video. The reports stated that the incident was from Casablanca, Morocco. A group of youngsters, according to reports, attacked a Muslim woman with eggs, flour and water on the day of Ashura. Ashura is the tenth day of Muharram. You can read the articles here and here.

The same video was also posted by Casablanca-based vlogger Yassine Jarram on his Facebook page.

Interestingly, an article by France24 mentions that throwing eggs and flour is a Moroccan holiday tradition.

The article also reports about a second video posted by the men seen throwing eggs and flour on the Muslim woman. The woman supposedly seen in the first video also appears in this video and says that the youngsters were 'just having fun'. However, the video has been deleted. France24's article questioned whether the woman was forced to downplay the incident.