Fact Check: Muslim man forcibly marries minor girl? No, video is scripted
A video surfaced on social media claiming to show a 75-year-old Muslim man marrying a 16-year-old woman without her consent.
By - Rahul Adhikari
Claim:The video shows a 75-year-old Muslim man marrying an underage woman against her will.
Fact:False. The video is scripted.
Hyderabad: A video circulating online claims that a 75-year-old Muslim man married a 16-year-old girl against her will.
The footage shows the bride in tears as the groom attempts to pull her along. She can be heard shouting in Bengali, “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go with this old man.” The scene appears to show a post-marriage ceremony.
One user shared the video on X and wrote, “A 75-year-old Muslim man marries a 16-year-old girl against her will. Islamic culture display, coming soon to your neighbourhood.” (Archive)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false. A scripted video based on the theme of a forceful marriage was falsely shared with a communal spin.
How did we find the truth?
We divided the video into keyframes and conducted a Google reverse image search. We found a Reddit thread in which a user commented that the video was staged and posted by a Facebook page named ‘Wedding Studio’.
We found the Facebook page by the same name, and its bio states that the videos they produce are scripted and created for entertainment purposes only.
What is the channel about?
NewsMeter then reviewed the videos posted by the page and found that they mainly focus on dramatised reenactments of weddings. In most of their videos, the themes revolve around age differences between the bride and groom or couples being caught in unusual situations.
We found the viral video in their video library. It seems like a short segment of a longer video in which the entire marriage ceremony was enacted. We also found several similar videos of this scripted marriage in the library. However, the full video was not posted on this page.
On further research, we found a slightly longer version of the viral video on a YouTube channel named ‘AN Media 1,’ posted on January 3. We also noticed that a few actors from this video appeared in other videos on the channel.
We reached out to the Facebook page for comment. The article will be updated as and when they respond.
