Claim: Arshad Nadeem hugged Maryam Nawaz when she visited the athlete’s residence to congratulate him on his victory in the 2024 Olympics.
Fact: A video purportedly showing Nadeem hugging Maryam Nawaz is doctored.
A video shared on Facebook shows Olympic javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem hugging PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz. The clip has since been shared across Facebook and other social media platforms.
On Tiktok, for example, it was shared with the caption: “Maryam Nawaz huged Arshad Nadeem”
On 13 August, Maryam Nawaz visited Arshad Nadeem’s residence in Mian Channu to congratulate him and his family on his victory at the Olympics in Paris.
During the meeting, she presented Nadeem with a PKR 100 million cash prize and a car in recognition of his gold medal.
Following the ceremony, Nawaz left for Lahore via helicopter.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse- image search on the video’s keyframes and found a YouTube video, shared by Dawn, titled “Footage of Maryam Nawaz Reaching Arshad Nadeem’s Home on Helicopter.”
The doctored segment appears to have been taken from the 1:09 timestamp, where Nawaz is seen placing the gold medal on the athlete.
The video in the claim is evidently manipulated because both of their bodies show signs of distortion. As Nawaz embraces Nadeem in the doctored video, her left hand unnaturally shifts to the position where her right hand should be, creating an irregular and unrealistic movement. Just before the hug, it appears as though her clothes disappear for a split second, a glitch that was likely caused when Nadeem’s hand was awkwardly edited to merge with her back. Her body seems to “melt” into him, with visible botching. Compared to the original footage by Dawn, the overall brightness of the video in the claim is also unusually high, which further indicated possible tampering.
Different users have shared the video showing Nawaz and Nadeem either on the right or left side, indicating that the footage has been flipped or mirrored, which further proved to us that it has been manipulated.
Virality:
The video was shared on Facebook here, here, here, and here.
On Instagram, it was shared here.
It was also shared on TikTok here and here.
Conclusion: A video allegedly showing Arshad Nadeem hugging Maryam Nawaz was manipulated and doctored. The unnatural distortions, mirrored versions, and inconsistent visual elements indicate that the footage is not authentic.
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Background image in cover photo: AP News
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