By Tanya Manglik
On National Girl Child Day, 2014, a group of Muslim schoolgirls in Hyderabad put up a brilliantly executed martial arts show to celebrate the occasion. The girls, aged between 10 and16, performed the Vietnamese martial art Vovinam, and wielded swords and sticks skilfully, while raising awareness about gender equality.
Two years later, the Assamese newspaper Asomiya Pratidin used a picture from that martial arts show on its front page on 11th July 2016. But the shocking part is that it was used to illustrate an article that claimed the girls were “jihadis”.
The bizarre substitution was spotted by Guwahati-based lawyer Aman Wadud, who tweeted the video soon after he tweeted a picture of Asomiya Pratidin’s front page.
It’s almost like it happened in a cartoon, where someone from the paper saw the video and went, “You know what, Muslims + Martial Arts = Jihadis. Makes sense, they’re really out to get us.” Except that it isn’t funny when you consider Assam’s bloody history of discrimination against Muslims.
Good job on failing to fact-check and spreading hate, Asomiya Pratidin. We’d krav maga you if we could.