A couple of days ago the central government approved an ordinance that criminalised Triple Talaq where Muslim men can ‘instantly divorce’ their wives. Many media outlets have been coming up with opinions or reports related to them. As is the usual practice, articles on digital publications are often accompanied with a ‘featured image’ that is either directly related to the event being talked about or is ‘representational’.
Often for triple talaq related news, images of burqa-clad women have been used by various portals, and the same was done by Firstpost today, except that it left people guessing if they were women or, wait.. bus seats!
Though Firstpost soon deleted the tweet, it had been picked up by many Twitter users and their opinion was divided on whether it was women in the image or bus seats.
Intern- What picture to use, sir?
Editor- Women in burqa, obviously!
Intern- Sir, I can’t find any…
Editor- Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
Intern- pic.twitter.com/LNpgJyTnQ0— अविभेद्य (Anonymous) संघी युवक (@anonBrook) September 20, 2018
A news portal in India wanted to post pictures of Burkha clad women.. they confused bus seats for Burkha clad women. ?? For once I thought it was women but I soon realised..?? @TarekFatah @Imamofpeace pic.twitter.com/frHesBXIBG
— Dr. Aayush Jha ?? (@AyushjhaJha) September 20, 2018
While the opinion on social networking website Twitter was divided, if one looks closely, the image is clearly that of bus seats and not burqa-clad women.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that particular image has confused people. In August last year, a Norwegian group named ‘Fedrelandet Viktigst’ had used the image in a post that asked its readers ‘what do people think of this’. Comments from people were mixed where many had mistaken the image to be that of burqa-clad women.
While liberals had slammed the group for propagating Islamophobia, many people had expressed concern over the striking resemblance with burqa-clad women.
