ON THE VERACITY OF A PICTURE



The above picture I find truly horrible, literally nightmarish. It haunted me for a considerable time after I first saw it on Twitter. But what does it depict? The very nature of the picture seems too horrible to be real. It has appeared numerous times, most recently here, and is said to depict Yazidi sex slaves. But does it? 

I have sought to establish the veracity of this picture with some difficulty, however finally someone on Twitter informed me that the women were Iranian and they are shown enacting scenes related to the battle of Karbala, a regular pageant known as the ceremony of Arbaeen.

I did find the picture above when I googled ‘The religious ceremony of Arbaeen,’ but as it appeared with pictures quite clearly not related to the ceremony it proved nothing. 
The picture however is very similar to this one, taken by Wissam al-Saliby, identified as being part of contemporary Karbala celebrations. 
Wissam al-Saliby

When you click on this picture the picture above appears next to it, with this text link On the page that is downloaded you scroll down to find the picture of the chained women with the text as reproduced below.



Muslim Shi'ite women, chained to each other, march during a re-enactment
 of the battle of Kerbala during a mourning process
 in Saksakieh village, in southern Lebanon, on Dec. 4. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
You will note that Reuters gives the location as southern Lebanon, meaning they are Lebanese Shias. So this picture is in fact not of Yezdi sex slaves. 



So what point am I making? Well firstly I am not disputing the fact that IS/Daesh have raped taken prisoner and enslaved hundreds of Christian and Yazidi women. For the benefit of any would be IS apologists, IS boasts about the fact, and have even produced guidelines!

But it seems to me if we are going to combat an evil such as IS it is essential to do so truthfully, for if we are tempted at any stage to cook the books, the apologists for Islamism, and there are a great many, will leap on any weakness and use it to the maximum effect. The reality of IS is as vile as is imaginable, indeed sometimes imagination creaks under the weight of such horror.We owe it to the victims of this disgusting outfit to faithfully draw attention to their plight.

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