AN image showing an elderly Muslim man sitting on a chair, dressing the headscarf of a very young girl standing next to him has resurfaced online alongside a claim that the two are married and that Islam permits such marriage to a minor.
An X user, @realMaalouf, posted the image on November 20, 2024 with a caption that read:
“Sorry, but if your religion allows old men to marry young girls like this, maybe it’s time to have a conversation with yourself and realize your religion is not a religion of peace.
It’s pure evil!”
The post has garnered over 4 million views with about 90,000 likes and more than 19,000 reposts as of November 24, 2024.
CLAIM
Image shows an elderly Muslim man marrying a minor.
THE FINDINGS
Checks by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
International conventions prohibit child marriage and define eighteen as the age of adulthood, says the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
These laws are based on the argument that children and adolescents are not mature enough to make choices about marriage, and that marrying too young can lead to lasting emotional, physical, and psychological harm.
The Muslim community has often faced accusations of encouraging child marriage, a practice critics argue violates children’s rights and exposes young girls to health risks, including early pregnancy and limited educational opportunities among others.
The allegation stemmed from the claim that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) married to one of his wives, Aisha when she was 6. Some Islamic scholars have argued that the religion does not encourage child marriage.
To verify the claim, our fact-checker conducted a Google reverse image search to identify the source of the image. The results show that the image has been online since 2016.
Unfortunately, our fact-checker also came across the same image in an X post from December 28, 2023 shared online by an X user, @priyanshuk___. It also has similar claim with the primary claimant here, as it was captioned: “Husband and wife, Islam approved. Thoughts?”
However, findings by The FactCheckHub revealed that the image was taken from Lalegul kindergarten, an elementary school located in Elazığ, a city in eastern Türkiye, formerly known as Turkey, a country that straddles the divide between Europe and Asia.
The image was taken at an event organised to celebrate the young pupils of the school who have learnt how to recite Quran even before they started formal education (reading and writing), a media report published on May 20, 2016 by SOL, a Turkey-based media outlet stated.
Part of the event’s programme was to dress the young children in attires and headscarves. Further checks show that the man in the photo is the headmaster of the Lalegul kindergarten. Also, there are multiple X posts from 2016 that confirmed the event here and here.
The school, owned by Ayhan ÅžimÅŸek, is an Islamic school that identifies with Islamic culture. The scene depicts a mere transition to the Quranic ceremony and does not show any marriage ceremony.
Also, Africa Check had earlier debunked the image in January 2024.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the image shows an elderly Muslim man marrying a minor is FALSE; the photo shows a headmaster with a pupil at a school ceremony at Lalegul kindergarten, Elazig, in Türkiye.
EDITOR’S NOTE/CORRECTION:
* The featured image was changed to reflect our FALSE label. To know more about how we rate claims, click here.
 standing close to him with the claim the two are married and that Islam permits the marriage has resurfaced online.){kind=link}