Old Clip From Syria Shared as 'Woman Executed in Afghanistan by Taliban'

The video from 2015 shows the al-Nusra Front in Idlib Syria executing a woman and is not a recent Taliban incident.

The clip does not show Taliban executing an Afghan woman. It is a 2015 clip from Syria.

(Photo: WhatsApp/Altered by The Quint)

Amid Afghanistan's occupation by Taliban and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the country, a video of a burqa-clad woman being publicly executed is being shared as the Taliban executing her in Afghanistan for not using a veil.

However, we found that the video dates back to 2015 and shows a militant group with ties to Al-Qaeda. The armed men surround the woman, who was accused of adultery, before executing her.

CLAIM

The graphic video is being shared with claims that state that in Afghanistan, the Taliban shot a woman in the middle of the road as she didn't wear her burqa properly.

(Warning: Due to the graphic nature of the visuals we have not added any link to the video.)

The video was shared as a recent one from Afghanistan.

At the time of writing this article, this post by 'Rout Jagannath' was shared more than 1,200 times.

The Quint received multiple queries for the video's verification on its WhatsApp tipline as well.

WHAT WE FOUND

Using InVID, a video verification tool, we divided the video into multiple frames in order to carry out reverse image searches on them.

The search led us to a 2015 report by British tabloid Daily Mail, which carried the video.

The tabloid reported that the video was from Syria.

The report carried stills from the graphic video.

The headline stated that the incident occurred in Syria, where the woman was executed by Al-Qaeda after being accused of adultery.

Independent reported that the footage was shot on a mobile phone belonging to a member of the Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syrian wing. Their report identifies the location as the city of Idlib, Syria.

In the graphic video, a group of men order the woman to kneel and one of them issues a speech declaring that the woman had been convicted of adultery by an Islamic court and his accompolice shoots her in the head immediately after.

Further, we found a Vice News article that said that the video was posted by a local activist group, 'Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently', adding that the woman's request to see her children was denied before her demise.

Vice News' report led us the video uploaded by local activists.

We also came across an article about the execution on the website of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in which the body's director told news agency Reuters that the al-Nusra Front controlled 70 - 80 percent of Idlib, along with terrorist outfit Daesh.

Evidently, this video does not show the Taliban executing a woman in Afghanistan, where now many women fear for their rights and safety.

The clip being shared shows an Al-Qaeda linked outfit, which executed a woman in Idlib, Syria for adultery.

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