Claim: A video shows an old man sexually assaulting a minor girl in an agricultural field.
Fact: The clip is actually from a 2004 Iranian TV series called “Zahra’s Blue Eyes” and depicts the main character and her grandfather attempting to flee Israeli police officers.
On 20 June 2024, anti-Islam activist Salwan Momika posted (archive) a video on X, claiming it shows an 86-year-old man who “sexually assaults a 7-year-old girl in an agricultural field”.
In the same post, Momika also added derogatory comments about “Islamic culture” and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), while criticising the “people who believe in this culture” despite living in the “West”.
Who is Salwan Momika?
Momika is known for carrying out a series (archive) of Quran burnings, causing anger and riots in multiple Muslim-majority countries for his actions, as well as attaining worldwide publicity. The Iraqi refugee sought asylum in Sweden where his temporary residence permit expired on 16 April.
Before his temporary permit expired, however, he decided (archive) to apply for asylum in neighbouring Norway, where he was arrested on arrival, jailed (archive) at the police immigration detention centre in Trandum, as per an Oslo court order, and deported (archive) later.
On 11 April, he was returned to Sweden, where he is under investigation “for incitement against ethnic groups”, according to The Associated Press. During his detention, viral social media posts claimed — and celebrated — that his dead body was found in Norway. That, however, turned out to be false after we investigated the rumours.
Investigations into Momika’s past by France 24’s The Observers (archive) and Arab News (archive) have revealed his mysterious life, which is “full of contradictions”. According to the reports, he was a part of the Imam Ali Brigades, an Iraqi militia “accused of war crimes”, a Christian militia, and the Swedish Democrats, an ultra-nationalist party.
He has also had ties with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), “a group of militias that have been integrated into the Iraq army since 2016 with the aim of fighting against the Islamic State group organisation”, or Daesh, but has denied having links with the group, according to The Observers.
Swedish authorities have also confirmed that he once “threatened to kill a man while holding a knife” and was consequently punished, the publication added.
In the past, Momika has “praised” Muqtada Al-Sadr, an Iraqi cleric and politician who founded the Sadrist movement, but also announced his intention “to file a lawsuit” against him in another instance, according to Arab News. The publication also revealed that Momika founded the Syriac Democratic Union party and the Hawks Syriac Forces, which is “an armed militia established in 2014 that was affiliated with the pseudo-Christian militia Babylon Brigades”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first noticed that Momika’s post now has a label with the text, “Stay informed[.] This media is presented out of context,” a feature indicating a violation of X’s rules and policies and meant to inform users of misinformation and disinformation.
We also noticed a Community Note — an X feature that aims “to create a better informed world by empowering people on X to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts” — underneath, with the following text:
“This scene is from the 2004 Iranian TV series “Zehra’s Eyes” (at the 2:32:44 mark). Zehra and her Grandfather are hiding in a field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=001CzaVSC2E”
The link leads to a video available on Network Movie, a verified YouTube channel, with the title, “Zehra’s Eyes – 2004 (Zahra’s Blue Eyes) Cult Production | Full Movie – Full HD – Restored”.
According to the description of the YouTube video, “Zehra’s Eyes (original name: Zahra’s Blue Eyes) is a 2004 Iranian TV series” that depicts an Israeli commander, Isaac Owen, whose child is blind. The plot involves Owen’s decision to cure his child by taking the eyes of a Palestinian child, called Zehra. The commander “sends a medical delegation to a school in a refugee camp in Palestine” where they admire and decide to take “Zehra’s eyes”, it adds.
Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia reported that “Zahra’s Blue Eyes” — known as “چشمهای آبی زهرا” in Persian and alternatively as “For You, Palestine” — was produced in Iran and completed in mid-2004.
The Iranian TV series “is set in Israel and the West Bank” and “was filmed in Persian but subsequently dubbed into Arabic”, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The organisation also reported that its director and screenwriter, Ali Derakhshni, “started working on this project when [he] was active in the [(Iranian]) education ministry, 17 years ago”.
Soch Fact Check observed that multiple X users also pointed out the same in the interactions with Momika’s post here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The complete scene depicts a senior security officer who orders his men to check the camps, homes, and checkpoints and tells them, “The old man and the girl must be arrested.” He orders for sirens to be sounded and everyone to get in touch using wireless. In the following scene, an old man and his granddaughter, a minor girl, can be seen fleeing in an agricultural field as night falls.
The two stop for a quick conversation, which goes as follows:
Girl: “Dad Rahman, Look here. How beautiful it is!”
Grandfather: “Yes, dear. It’s beautiful. One day this land was all ours.”
Girl: “They took it from us?”
Grandfather: “We’ll get it back from them again. We should die [at] the very place where we were born. They’ve taken our land. They’ve occupied our land. Zahra, looks like they’ve noticed we’ve escaped. Come on! Hurry up!”
The child and her grandfather hide and take refuge among the plants in the agricultural field as police officers search for them. In the morning, the old man opens his eyes and wakes up his granddaughter, saying, “Zahra! Get up, dear. Looks like there’s a road here.”
The exact, clipped scene that is included in the viral X post by Momika starts at the 2:32:59 mark and ends at the 2:33:15 mark.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claim is false as the clip does not depict an instance of an 86-year-old man sexually assaulting a minor girl in an agricultural field.
Virality
Momika’s post has received over 1.7 million views as of writing time.
Soch Fact Check found that the claim was also posted here, here, here, here, and here on X, where it was viewed more than 160,600, 37,700, 25,300, 20,700, and 13,100 times, respectively.
The claim was also shared here, here, and here on Facebook. On Instagram, it was posted here and here, the latter of which has garnered upwards of 14,400 views.
The clip was also uploaded on a seemingly pornographic website here.
Conclusion: The clip does not depict sexual assault. It is, in fact, from a 2004 Iranian TV series called “Zahra’s Blue Eyes” and shows the main character, Zahra, and her grandfather trying to escape Israeli officials.
Background image in cover photo: @Salwan_Momika1
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