Fact check: Viral photo shows attempted suicide, not Taliban hanging
The claim: A photo shows a man hanged by the Taliban in front of his son
Since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August, the Islamic fundamentalist group has hanged accused criminals in public. But one popular photo on social media doesn't show a recent execution.
An image published Sept. 30 on Facebook shows a man hanging from a noose as a child watches and cries.
"Saddest picture in a long time. An Afghan Kid crying seeing his father executed on the street by Islamic Terrorists Taliban," reads the caption on the post, which received more than 100 reactions in six days.
Similar posts have accumulated thousands of interactions over the past week, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. Fox Nation host Lara Logan tweeted an uncensored version of the image Sept. 30. and received more than 4,300 retweets within five days.
"Daily reminder of what our leaders have done in all of our names," Logan wrote. "What they want all of us to forget – and Afghans are still enduring. Do not let them legitimize terror as a form of governing."
Fact check: No evidence female Afghan Army pilot was stoned to death by the Taliban
But the Taliban were not behind the hanging depicted in the image. The photo shows an attempted suicide in Afghanistan several years ago.
Paste BN reached out to Fox News and the Facebook user who shared the claim for comment.
Photo shows attempted suicide
The photo in the social media posts shows an attempted suicide in northern Afghanistan on March 26, 2018.
The man in the image is Shah Mahmood, an Afghan who tried to hang himself in front of the governor's office in Taloqan, capital of Takhar province. BBC News reported that Mahmood claimed the government had ignored his complaints about losing his land to usurpers.
Radio Azadi, the Afghan branch of the U.S. government's Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast services, posted a video on Facebook that shows bystanders freeing Mahmood. In the video, the boy screams and cries next to him.
Fact check: What we know about COVID-19 precautions, deaths in Afghanistan
According to Radio Azadi, Mahoood was a resident of Taloqan. Neither Paste BN nor other independent fact-checking organizations were able to verify the boy's identity.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a photo shows a man hanged by the Taliban in front of his son. The image shows an Afghan man who attempted suicide in March 2018 in Takhar province. The Taliban were not involved in the hanging.
Our fact-check sources:
- Associated Press, Sept. 25, Taliban hang body in public; signal return to past tactics
- Yandex Reverse Image Search, accessed Oct. 1
- Jawed Mohtashami, March 26, 2018, Tweet
- BBC News, March 26, 2018, A man in Takhar tries to commit suicide due to the 'negligence' of the government
- Radio Azadi, March 26, 2018, Facebook post
- Reuters, Oct. 1, Fact Check-Graphic image does not show a man killed by the Taliban in front of his son
- CrowdTangle, accessed Oct. 4
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.