Amid the ongoing violent protests in Iran over the death of 22-year old woman, a video of a man dancing at the grave is being widely shared on social media with a claim that he is the father of an Iranian woman who was killed at the anti-hijab protests, and he was dancing now because he promised to dance at his daughter’s wedding. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of an Iranian father dancing at her daughter’s grave after her death in anti-hijab protests.
Fact: This video is from the 78th Episode of an Azerbaijani television series ‘Ata Ocağı’ telecast in 2018. It doesn’t show any real incident related to Iran’s anti-hijab protests. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
We searched the internet with relevant keywords and came across a tweet by an Azerbaijani Journalist “Cavid Ağa” on 29 September 2022. While replying to a user who posted this viral video, he says, “This man is an actor I personally know. His name is Gurban Ismayilov and this scene is from a famous TV drama Ata Ocağı (Hearth of Father) aired 4 years ago. https://youtu.be/_CGxBciEWws (starts at 18:40) “
Taking a cue from this, we searched for the video on YouTube and found it to be true. This video was uploaded on 9 January 2018 with a title “Ata Ocağı (78-ci seriya)”, which translates to “Father’s hearth (Episode 78)”. From 19:05 minutes, the character played by Gurban Ismayilov can be seen dancing. The description of the video confirms it as a television series.
To sum it up, a clipped video of a television series is shared as a real incident of an Iranian father dancing at his daughter’s grave.
