The viral image does not show Bangladesh freedom fighters recreate 1971 moment

None of the women in the photographs were part of the Bangladesh Liberation War.

A series of two images depicting four women sitting in a jeep over the course of several years has gone viral on social media. The images are claim that the four women are freedom fighters from the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. In the first black and white image, four women can be seen sitting in a jeep. While one woman is in the driver’s seat holding the steering wheel, the rest of the women are holding guns.

The image is viral with the claim, “Four Bangladeshi freedom fighters recreate their 1971 photograph in the same Willy's Jeep.”

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Fact Check-

By conducting a reverse image search on the black-and-white picture we found the same image on the Facebook page of Bangladesh Old Photo Archive on 19 June, 2023. The caption of the post reads, “Women are posing with gun in a village trip. Bangladesh (1965) Photo courtesy- Renan Ahmed.”

Further we looked through Ahmed's public posts and discovered the same black-and-white picture of the four women, which Ahmed shared in an obituary post in August 2020. Ahmed's grandmother, Rokeya Ahmed, seen in both photographs, passed away on 25 August 25, 2020. Ahmed stated that the black and white photograph was taken in 1961. Other photographs of a young Rokeya Ahmed can be seen in the post below.

Further, in an interview by Bangladeshi news outlet News Bangla 24, Rokeya Ahmed's daughter-in-law Riffat Ahmed, clarifies that none of the women seen in the photograph were freedom fighters. "This is a personal photograph. My husband's grandfather Alauddin Ahmed and his family would go to a picnic twice a year. This photo is most probably from Khulna. After a hunting session and cooking, he told the women to sit and pose as if they were going hunting." Speaking about the recent image, Riffat Ahmed said, "During the marriage of my elder son, we brought all the old photographs from both families and reprinted them. Everybody appreciated them and became emotional. Thus we created a before and after of this image in 2017 where all four women are present. Seen in the photograph are Ayesha Ahmed, Rokeya Ahmed, Rashida Ahmed, and Shahnara Ahmed."

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found that the viral images are shared with false claims that these women participated in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. The women in the picture are not freedom fighters, but rather relatives. The first photograph was shot in 1961, ten years before the Bangladesh Liberation War, and the second was recreated by one of the family members in 2017 during a family gathering of all four women.