- Moderator
- #1
Except...it's a hoax.
snopes.com: Hamas Mass Wedding for 450 Little Girls
Pictures of a line of men holding hands with little girls in white have circulated widely in support of a hoax that is little more than anti-Islamic and anti-Palestinian hate mongering.
According to Snopes, quoting a NYT article from 2008, officials in Gaza have organized a number of mass-wedding celebrations:
Photographs and videos from these events were circulated and accompanied by commentary asserting that "most (or all) of the brides at the wedding were actually "pre-pubescent girls" who, despite being under ten years of age, were being married off to men in their mid- to late-twenties (in large part because the older women who were the real brides were not visibly evident in those images)."
What are the facts? According to Snopes investigation:
"...the young girls in these pictures were not being married off to adult males; they were relatives of the brides and grooms (typically nieces and cousins ranging in age from three to eight years old) who were merely ancillary participants in the ceremony, performing a function similar to that of flower girls in western-style weddings. Even though news accounts document that they were undeniably present, the older women who did get married that day weren't apparent in the recorded images because, unlike the style of weddings most westerners are accustomed to, brides don't take center stage at this type of event"
Most interesting, it concludes with a statement by the very reporter who covered one of those events:
snopes.com: Hamas Mass Wedding for 450 Little Girls
Pictures of a line of men holding hands with little girls in white have circulated widely in support of a hoax that is little more than anti-Islamic and anti-Palestinian hate mongering.
According to Snopes, quoting a NYT article from 2008, officials in Gaza have organized a number of mass-wedding celebrations:
The grooms were resplendent in white shirts while the brides all wore black. At a sports stadium one recent October evening, thousands of Palestinians 300 newly married couples along with relatives and friends gathered for a mass wedding celebration, the 10th here this year courtesy of Hamas.
Hamas has been observing a truce with Israel, allowing its underground fighters to resurface but leaving them without much to do. At the same time, hundreds of the group's women have been recently widowed, their husbands having been killed either in confrontations with Israel or in the fighting between Hamas and its secular rival, Fatah.
Taking advantage of the pause in violence, the Hamas leaders have turned to matchmaking, bringing together single fighters and widows, and providing dowries and wedding parties for the many here who cannot afford such trappings of matrimony.
Photographs and videos from these events were circulated and accompanied by commentary asserting that "most (or all) of the brides at the wedding were actually "pre-pubescent girls" who, despite being under ten years of age, were being married off to men in their mid- to late-twenties (in large part because the older women who were the real brides were not visibly evident in those images)."
What are the facts? According to Snopes investigation:
"...the young girls in these pictures were not being married off to adult males; they were relatives of the brides and grooms (typically nieces and cousins ranging in age from three to eight years old) who were merely ancillary participants in the ceremony, performing a function similar to that of flower girls in western-style weddings. Even though news accounts document that they were undeniably present, the older women who did get married that day weren't apparent in the recorded images because, unlike the style of weddings most westerners are accustomed to, brides don't take center stage at this type of event"
Most interesting, it concludes with a statement by the very reporter who covered one of those events:
Dozens, and I mean dozens, of websites took the video of the event and wrote lurid stories about Hamas mass paedophilia with headlines about '450 child brides', and endless copy about how disgusting this was, how it showed how depraved Islam is, et al, ad infinitum. Site after site jumped on the story, linking from one totally wrong load of rubbish to the next.
It showed how much some people want to believe nonsense like this, as it reinforces their prejudices, always a comfortably fun thing to do. But Hamas, and the jihadists do enough terrible things without having to make things up about them. Most of the stuff I read was outright, unthinking, gleeful, Islamophobia from people who clearly knew nothing about Arab popular culture. It's as if they really believe that because there are [real] examples of child brides, it means all weddings are with child brides.
Who would you believe, the reporter who went to the event, or a desperately poor version of citizen journalist, sitting at home, making things up, not checking anything, and either unknowingly or deliberately, writing hysterical anti Islamic nonsense?