This photo of Angela Merkel’s hair blurred out on Saudi state TV is a fake A fake photo showing Angela Merkel’s hair blurred out on Saudi Arabian state television has been shared tens of thousands […]

A fake photo showing Angela Merkel’s hair blurred out on Saudi Arabian state television has been shared tens of thousands of times on social media.

The German chancellor made headlines earlier this week for becoming the latest in a string of female politicians who have chosen not to wear a headscarf when visiting the Sunni kingdom.

Many social media users mistook the satirical photograph mocking Saudi Arabia’s record on women’s rights for the real thing.

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‘Not a joke’

“Our own logo says ‘sarcastic news’. It is written right under our name!” Khase News spokesperson

In the early hours of Thursday morning, Sarah Abdallah, who describes herself as a Lebanese geopolitical commentator and has more than 70,000 followers on Twitter, shared a screengrab of Mrs Merkel standing next to King Salman with her hair pixellated.

“Not a joke,” Abdallah wrote. “The UN’s newest member of the Women Rights Commission censored the German chancellor’s hair when she appeared today on Saudi TV.”

The photo has been retweeted more than 15,000 times and quoted many times more.

Among the responses were messages like: “It would be funny if it wasn’t true”, “don’t know whether to laugh or get cross”, and “one of the most ludicrous things I’ve ever seen”.

The only trouble is that the photo is a joke, quite literally.

‘Just for fun…’

The photo was originally uploaded to the satirical Facebook page ‘Khase News’ on Wednesday as a critique of women’s rights in the kingdom, under the caption: “Just for fun…”.

https://www.facebook.com/khasenews/photos/a.1608953782730156.1073741828.1608606936098174/1751764575115742/?type=3

“Saudi Arabia is one the most oppressive regimes in the world and in the Middle East,” a spokesperson for Khase News told i.

“The photo is criticising the fact that in Saudi it is forbidden for a woman to show her hair.

“Yet when a powerful like Merkel comes, [the regime] does nothing about it.”

Addressing the fact that so many people had shared the photo thinking it was real, the spokesperson admitted they were surprised.

“Our own logo says ‘sarcastic news’. It is written right under our name!” they added.

“Everything we post is like The Onion.”

Where did the original photo come from?

The photo did not come from Saudi state television, but from the Saudi Royal Court and was distributed to the media by photo agencies like the Associated Press and Reuters last weekend.

The Saudi state-run news agency has also published unedited photos on its website and on social media.

Did state television show footage of Mrs Merkel’s visit?

The following clip from Al Ekhbariya – a state-run television channel – showed Mrs Merkel’s visit (without blurring her hair).

Al Ekhbariya broadcasts to the kingdom and the rest of the Arabic-speaking world. While it is still government-owned, the channel says it presents a more liberal view of the country.

The reality of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia

Although the photo of Mrs Merkel is a fake, there has been widespread anger in the past week at Saudi Arabia’s induction to the UN’s Women’s Rights Commission.

The kingdom is now one of 45 members states on a panel that is “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women”.

However, the ultra-conservative Sunni kingdom forbids numerous rights enjoyed by women elsewhere in the world.

One human rights expert described the decision to elect Saudi Arabia to the commission as “like making an arsonist into the town’s fire safety chief”.

“This is a black day for women’s rights, and for all human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

“Saudi discrimination against women is gross and systematic in law and in practice. Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. “Saudi Arabia bans women from driving cars. Why did the UN choose the world’s leading oppressor of women to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women?” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch

After being contacted by i, Sarah Abdallah, who spread the image, admitted on Twitter that it was fake, but did not delete her original post.

https://twitter.com/sahouraxo/status/860143566584205312