A photo of a man wearing a skullcap and a woman in a burqa is viral on social media. The duo is wearing garlands around the neck. It is being claimed that the man got married to his nine-year-old daughter. A verified Twitter handle ‘@rakesh_bstpyp’ shared this picture with the same claim. This user describes himself as an editor of a newspaper. The tweet amassed over 1,300 retweets before it was deleted. (Archive link)

One Lalita Thakur also tweeted the photo and accompanying claim. Her Twitter bio states that she is a Modi supporter. The viral caption makes a comparison between Muslims and Hindus. It implies that Muslim men marry minor girls whereas Hindus regard minor girls as deities. (Archive link)

The image is widespread on Facebook and Twitter.

Alt News discovered that the same image was circulating back in 2017. It was claimed that a maulvi in Pakistan married his own daughter.

Fact-check

Alt News performed a reverse image search and found the original photo in a Facebook post dated September 23, 2018. The post says that the father and daughter who finished reciting the Quran together from memory were photographed together.

A keyword search revealed that the image was shared by several users in 2016. It was posted on a Facebook page called ‘Tajweed ul Quran’ on February 3, 2016. This is the earliest instance that we could find.

An online forum Islamic Board had shared the photo on October 2, 2016. The accompanying caption stated that this father and daughter became Hafiz-e-Quran (memorizer of the entire holy text) together.

Multiple posts are available on social media congratulating Muslim children upon memorising the entire Quran. These kids are also wearing garlands. In Karnataka’s Bidar district, eight-year-old Tooba Zainab memorised the Quran in 20 months.

To sum it up, a photo of a father and daughter was shared on social media with the false claim that a middle-aged Muslim man married his nine-year-old daughter. A similar false claim was shared in the past. A picture of a mother-son duo was posted claiming that a woman married her son.

The post Photo of father-daughter shared as Muslim man marries his minor daughter appeared first on Alt News.

This post was originally published on Alt News.