Claim: A Muslim mother married her son in anger after a father married his daughter.
Fact: The photos actually show the two (unrelated) parents standing with their respective children who either completed their first recitation of the Quran or finished memorising the Quran.
On 3 July 2022, Facebook page ‘We Support Nupur Sharma’ posted the screenshot of a tweet alleging that a father married his daughter, which prompted his wife to marry their son in anger.
The tweet, which was posted by Twitter user @curlykrazy07, stated, “Father married his own daughter so mother got furious and married her own son. Baki pic explains all.”
The screenshot comprises two images. The image on the left is of a middle-aged, bearded man in a topi, or cap, standing with a young girl in a scarf; both can be seen sporting flower garlands. On the right is a woman with a dupatta on her head, standing with a young boy with a topi; they are also wearing garlands around their necks.
The image has spread widely across multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check used Google Reverse Image Search to ascertain the source of the image that appeared on the left of the screenshot. We came across this Facebook post from 2020 with the Urdu text — “ماشا اللہ یہ دونوں باپ بیٹی ایک کلاس ی سے حافظ قرآن بن کر نکلے ہیں کمنٹ میں مبارک باد کا پیغام دے کر شیئر ضرور کریں یہ خوبصورت مثال [As God willed, this father and daughter have graduated as Hafiz-e-Quran, or memorisers of the Quran, from their class together. Be sure to share this beautiful example by sending a congratulatory message in the comments]” — superimposed on the photograph.
We uploaded the image to Google Lens for further verification of the text and the photograph. An organic Facebook search with the keywords, “باپ بیٹی ایک کلاس حافظ قرآن [Father daughter one class Hafiz-e-Quran],” led us to four posts by ‘Tajweed ul Quran’, ‘إسلامي جمہوریہ پاکستان’, ‘Adnan Shahid’, and ‘Pakistan peace full’.
We also found a Facebook post from 30 January 2016 that appears to be the uncropped version of the image, posted by the man seen in the picture. Sharjeel Amjad Rao, the father, wrote in the caption, “My daughter and son will be blessed to memorise the Quran at such a young age.”
The image on the left of the viral visual in question is, therefore, of a father posing with his son and daughter after both children completed their Quran memorisation classes.
A reverse image search for the picture on the right side of the viral visual, on the other hand, turned up this post from 2 February 2020 that was shared by Facebook page ‘Hadiyat deen’. It was accompanied by the caption, “آج میرے بیٹے کا ختم القرآن تھا ھمیں مبارک باد دے کر کون کون شئیر کریگا [Today was my son’s Khatam-ul-Quran (completion of Quran reading). Who will congratulate us and share?].” The same was also shared a few hours later by Facebook page ‘Allah Samma’ and, on 4 February 2020, Facebook user ‘Muhammad Habib Dhawa’ shared it alongside a shot of the mother and son from another angle.
One of the most popular posts carrying the image is this one by Facebook user ‘Shakeela Naz – شکیلہ ناز’, which received more than 24,000 reactions on Facebook and was shared 375 times. There is no caption along with the picture but it is very likely that Naz — who has close to four million followers — is the woman seen in the viral photo.
The picture in question has been shared in standalone posts by multiple people and pages on Facebook; therefore, while Soch Fact Check could not ascertain exactly where it originated from or where the viral picture was taken, it is fairly clear that the image is of a boy posing with his mother after finishing recitation of the Quran.
An organic search on Facebook using the keyword, “آج میرے بیٹے کا ختم القرآن تھا [Today was my son’s completion of Quran reading],” shows that such photos are very common as parents post pictures of their children to mark the occasion as can be seen here, here, here, and here.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the period between 6 July 2016 and 6 July 2022 using the following search terms:
- “آج میرے بیٹے کا ختم القرآن تھا [Today was my son’s Khatam-ul-Quran]”
- “آج میرے بیٹے کا ختم القرآن تھا ھمیں مبارک باد دے کر کون کون شئیر کریگا [Today was my son’s Khatam-ul-Quran (completion of Quran reading); who will congratulate us and share?]”
The first search term turned up 182 posts with 231,489 interactions, while the second yielded 132,042 interactions across 63 posts.
We also conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the period between 6 June 2021 and 6 July 2022 using the following search terms:
- “9 साल की बेटी को बीवी मानने वाले… और 9 साल की बेटी को देवी मानने वाले कभी भाई-भाई नहीं हो सकते [Those who consider 9-year-old daughter as wife… and those who consider 9-year-old daughter as goddess can never be brothers.]”
- “बाप ने बेटी के साथ शादी कर ली तो गुस्से में आकर मां ने भी अपने [When the father got married with the daughter, then the mother got angry too.]”
The first search term turned up 49 posts with 15,393 interactions, while the second yielded 29,490 interactions across 203 posts.
We also searched for posts carrying the first Hindi search term in their captions using Facebook’s in-app search option. This turned up three posts that gained significant traction at 535 shares, 287 shares, and 232 shares.
Soch Fact Check also found images of the father–daughter and mother-son duos with inappropriate text superimposed on them, such as:
- “यह है पाकिस्तान के मौलवी जिन्हों ने अपनी ही बेटी से निकाह कर लिया [This is the cleric of Pakistan who got married to his own daughter]” and “पाकिस्तान के अंदर एक मौलवी ने की अपनी ही बेटी से शादी [In Pakistan a cleric married his own daughter.]”
- “पाकिस्तान में एक अब्बू का दिल अपनी बेटी पर आ गया तो उसने अपनी बेटी से निकाह पढ़ लिया, तो गुस्से में आकर अम्मीजान ने [In Pakistan, Abba’s (father’s) heart fell for his daughter, then he contracted marriage with his daughter, then Amma (mother) got angry.]”
- “बाप ने बेटी के साथ शादी कर ली तो गुस्से में आकर मां ने भी अपने बेटे से शादी कर ली इतना पवित्र धर्म है इस्लाम [When the father got married with the daughter, in anger, the mother also married her son, Islam is such a holy religion.]”
- “बाप ने बेटी के साथ शादी कर ली, तो गुस्से में आकर मां ने भी अपने बेटे से शादी कर ली कितना पवित्र धर्म है, ना इस्लाम [When the father got married with the daughter, then the mother got angry and married her son, what a holy religion, neither is Islam.]”
On Twitter, the image was shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, as well by a verified Twitter account that claims to be a “Newspaper editor” and “Nationalist writer” and supports “Indianism.” The photo was also shared on Indian social networking service Koo.
Conclusion: A Muslim father did not marry his daughter, nor did his wife marry their son out of anger. The pictures, in fact, show children posing with their (unrelated) parents after completing their first recitation of the Quran or finishing memorising the Quran.