A video is being shared on social media claiming it is visuals of hundreds of pilgrims who gathered at the Iraq International Airport for commemorating Arba’een in Karbala. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing the pilgrims who gathered at the Iraq International Airport to commemorate Arba’een in Karbala.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows recent visuals of hundreds of Iranian pilgrims waiting to cross the Shalamcheh border to commemorate Arba’een in Karbala, Iraq. Ahead of Arba’een Day, many Iranian pilgrims arrived in Shalamcheh city, located on the border of Iran, to enter Iraq. The visuals are related to the Arba’een pilgrimage but do not show the visuals from any International Airport in Iraq. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a video with similar visuals was found to be posted by a few media channels and Facebook users. They can be seen here, here and here. These media channels described it as the visuals of pilgrims waiting to cross the Shalamcheh border port in Iran to commemorate Arba’een in Karbala, Iraq.
When we searched for other sources using relevant keywords on the internet, a photo showing similar visual was found in an article published by the ‘Irib News’ agency on 09 September 2022. This article confirmed it as the visuals from the Shalamcheh border port in Iran. Ahead of Arba’een Day, many Iranian pilgrims arrived in Shalamcheh city, located on the border of Iran, to enter Iraq.
In the wake of millions of pilgrims entering Iraq through the land borders from Iran, both Iraqi and Iranian governments closed their borders citing security concerns. According to the reports, the Shalamcheh border is still closed from the Iraqi side and thousands of pilgrims were still waiting to cross the border to attend Arba’een in Karbala.
Every year, millions of Iranians and pilgrims from all over the world travel to Karbala for performing the ritual of Arba’een, which marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, Imam Hussein. A few other visuals of pilgrims departing to Iraq for the Arba’een pilgrimage can be seen here. This year, Arba’een will begin on the evening of 16 September 2022 and ends on the evening of 17 September 2022. Past pictures and videos showing similar visuals of crowded pilgrims at the Shalamcheh border, ahead of Arba’een, can be seen here, here and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post is related to the Arba’een pilgrimage but does not show the visuals of crowded pilgrims at an International Airport in Iraq.
To sum it, this video shows the crowded Arba’een pilgrims at the Shalamcheh border in Iran, not at an International Airport in Iraq.
