Fact Check: Barack Obama bows to Ayatollah Khamenei? No, image is edited
An image has been circulating on social media, claiming to show former US President Barack Obama bowing to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
By - Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The image shows former US president Barack Obama bowing to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Fact:The claim is false. The image has been edited. Separate images of both were edited to make it look like they were photographed together.
Hyderabad: Amid the ongoing turmoil in Iran, an image of former US President Barack Obama bowing to Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, has been circulating on social media.
Sharing the image on Facebook, a user wrote, “The absolute low point in American history. But in my lifetime, I have watched this grovelling (expletive) be hosed to the gutter, and a real President take the reins. Thank God.”
An X user also shared the image and wrote, “This is a real photo. It is not AI”
Similar claims can be found here and here.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the image has been edited. Separate images of both were edited to make it look like they were photographed together.
Where is the Ayatollah’s photo from?
A reverse image search led us to the original image published by AFP, which is from August 3, 2005. This image features Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. However, it does not feature Obama.
Where is Obama’s photo from?
We also found Obama’s image posted by the White House on the image and video hosting platform Flickr on May 8, 2009.
This image shows the former American president bowing to a child.
According to the post, the image was captured by Pete Souza of White House. It depicts the White House staffer Carlton Philadelphia’s son, who had come to the Oval Office for a farewell photo with President Obama.
In May 2022, Obama shared a video of his meeting with Cartlon’s family on Instagram. The video also featured this image of him meeting his younger son, Jacob.
He captioned the video, “In 2009, Carlton Philadelphia, a National Security Council staffer, brought his wife and two sons to the Oval Office for a departure photo. Carlton’s older son, Isaac, asked me a few serious questions, but a more surprising one came from his younger brother, five-year-old Jacob. “Is your hair like mine?” he asked.
He added, “It wasn’t the kind of question I usually get. So, I bent down and told him, ‘Well, you want to check and see? Go ahead, touch it.’”
Therefore, we conclude that the viral image of Obama bowing to Khamenei is edited. The claim is false.
