Iranian women did not hoist flag made of hair to protest against hijab policy
An image of a flag made of hair is circulating on the internet with the claim that Iranian women hoisted a flag made of chopped hair.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 14 Oct 2022 11:43 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Iranian women have been protesting against their government following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in custody after she was arrested by Iran's morality police for her "inappropriate" dress.
In solidarity with Iranian women, women around the world are chopping off their hair.
Against this backdrop, an image of a flag made of hair is circulating on the internet with the claim that Iranian women hoisted a flag made of chopped hair.
Ashok Swain, a professor of peace and conflict research, posted the image on Twitter and wrote, "Iranian women protesters have made a flag from their chopped-off hairs!" (Archive)
Click here to see the post.
A filmmaker, Leena Manimekali, shared the image using the hashtag #IranProtests2022 and wrote, "This picture of chopped hair hoisted as a flag will be the photograph of this century." (Archive)
Click here to see the posts.
Indian media outlets, Firstpost and Hindustan Times, also made a similar claim and used the image in their articles.
Fact Check
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search and found the same image in a collection of artist Edith Dekyndt's work in a catalog "Ombre indigene."
The catalog mentions the date of the image, 2014, and the description states that the "flag made of hair was stuck in the ground and filmed on top of rocks on the Diamant coast, in Martinique."
It further said, "There, precisely, on the night of 8 April 1830, a clandestine slave boat transporting a hundred African captives washed up on the rocks before being entirely destroyed. Edouard Glissant was buried not far, in the small town of Diamant. Native from this island, this author is at the origin of the "tout-monde" (one-world) and "creolisation" concepts, the later being like an "interbreeding producing unpredictability."
We also found the same image on the website e-flux titled "Edith Dekyndt: Indigenous Shadow." It said that the image is a creation of the Belgian artist Edith Dekyndt.
We also came across a video of the Dekyndt's art exhibition from 2016 on the website Ombre indigĆØne. The image can be seen at the 0.8-second mark.
It is evident that the viral image of a flag made of hair was not hoisted by Iranian women as a symbolic protest against the Iranian government. The image is an artwork by Belgian artist Edith Dekyndt. Hence, the claim is false.
