Fact Check: Photo of weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, ex-JNU student leader Shehla Rashid shared with misleading claims
Mirabai Chanu won the silver medal in women's 49kg category at the Tokyo Olympics 2021 after she lifted a total of 202 kg
By Satya Priya BN Published on 27 July 2021 4:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Mirabai Chanu won the silver medal in women's 49kg category at the Tokyo Olympics 2021 after she lifted a total of 202 kg. Following this, a photo of Chanu and Shehla Rashid is doing the rounds of social media saying that while the 260year-old weightlifter from North-east India has made the country proud, Shehla Rashid, at the age of 33, is protesting against the country.
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Fact Check:
The comparison is completely MISLEADING. The image of Shehla Rashid is NOT recent and also the protests where she participated took place in 2015.
The viral image of Shehla Rashid is taken from news reports published in 2015 when she became the first Kashmiri girl to contest and win the Central Panel elections at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. She had said that she found the political space in her state "too restricted".
The engineer-turned-activist polled 1,387 votes, the maximum by any candidate that year. She won against BJP youth wing ABVP's Valentina Brahma by 234 votes.
Shehla, who raised the red flag (Left Student Union) in JNU, has been fighting for women's rights and human rights for a long time.
According to the website Sociologygroup.com, Shehla was born in Jammu and Kashmir in April 1988.
So, when this image was taken in 2015 she was around 27 years old. Almost the same age as Mirabai Chunnu and not 33 years old as is being claimed in the viral image. Therefore, the comparison is MISLEADING.
