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A video showing a distressed young woman crying as another person holds her by the hair and questions her is being shared online with claims that it depicts an assault on a foreign tourist in Pakistan.
The claim is false. The footage relates to an incident reported in Türkiye, not Pakistan.
Claim
On November 1, a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, shared a one-minute-and-29-second video, claiming that it showed a foreign tourist being assaulted in Pakistan and having her hair chopped off.
The post states: “A female tourist visiting Pakistan was allegedly raped, mistreated, and had her hair cut off.” The user further claims that the incident raises serious concerns about women’s safety in Pakistan, including the safety of foreign tourists and local women.
In the accompanying video, a woman is seen crying while another person questions her.
At the time of writing, the post had received 154,908 views, 3,500 likes and 1,500 reposts.
The same footage was also shared by another account on X.
Fact
The footage, however, is from an incident reported in Istanbul, Türkiye, and has no link to Pakistan.
A reverse image search of key frames from the viral footage led to a report published by Turkish news website Haberler on October 15. The report contains images matching those seen in the footage circulating on social media.
According to the report, a young woman of foreign nationality was attacked by a group of people in Istanbul’s Arnavutköy area. Her hair was cut and she was beaten, while the attackers recorded the incident on their mobile phones. The report can be read here.
Turkish newspaper Sözcü also reported the incident on October 15. The report can be viewed here.
Verdict: The viral footage does not show an attack in Pakistan, as claimed in the social media posts.
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