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 ...