Claim: A video shows Afghan women protesting and chanting in support of Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan recently.
Fact: The video is old and unrelated to the airstrikes, having appeared in July 2023 amid reports of Afghan women protesting the Taliban ban on beauty salons. Moreover, the clip is likely dubbed as the original version doesn’t show protesters chanting in support of Pakistan.
On 22 February, an X user posted a video (archive) purportedly showing Afghan women chanting slogans in support of Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan. The description of the post states:
“JUST IN:
Afghan female students support Pakistani airstrikes on terror camps in Afghanistan, chanting,
“Pakistan Zindabad” (Long Live Pakistan)
Afghan Taliban opened fire on female students.”
In the clip, women can be heard chanting “Pakistan Zindabad” [long live Pakistan], before gunfire is heard.
Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan
Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghanistan, targeting militant hideouts on 21 February 2026, according to Dawn. The strikes were in response to a series of terror attacks in Pakistan — which the country blames on militants operating from the neighboring country— according to an X post by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Afghan authorities, cited by publications, acknowledged the attacks and stated that civilians, including women and children, were among the dead. Sources quoted by Dawn and Reuters claimed that at least 70 terrorists had been killed in the attack.
The airstrikes reportedly targeted regions in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika in Afghanistan.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video and found that it is old and likely dubbed, thus not linked to recent attacks by Pakistan inside Afghanistan.
An X user posted the same clip (archive) on 19 July 2023, with the following caption:
“A group of women come [sic] out on the streets of Kabul today to protest against the Taliban’s closure of all beauty salons in Afghanistan.
The women chanted “bread, work, justice”. The Taliban used water cannons & gunshots disperse the protesters.”
The scenes in both this clip and the one being fact-checked match, indicating it is old. Moreover, in this version, protesters are not chanting “Pakistan Zindabad”, unlike in the clip being fact-checked, a sign that it was dubbed.
Left: Clip being fact-checked. Right: Same video from July 2023.
An Instagram user also posted the exact video (the clip repeats itself after 15 seconds) on 19 July 2023 (archive). Here, too, the caption refers to women protesting, but no demonstrator chants “Pakistan Zindabad”, confirming that it is unrelated to the recent Pakistani airstrikes.
Part of the description states: “Afghan Women: Bread, Work, Justice
Protesting women in the streets of Kabul are being brutalized with weapons left by @nato and their voice for justice is silenced with a bullet made in Western countries.”
The same video was also posted on LinkedIn nearly two years ago.
Reverse-searches also yielded a Daily Mail article from 19 July 2023 titled “Tobias Ellwood ‘faces being OUSTED as Commons Defence Committee chair’ and is branded an ‘idiot’ for ‘propaganda video’ praising the Taliban… as the Afghan rulers water-cannon women rights protesters”. Further down in the article, two images from the “gallery,” credited to X, match scenes from the video fact-checked.
Two images were shared by the Daily Mail in its article on 19 July 2023.
Two screenshots from the video circulating online match the Daily Mail photos above.
Further keyword searches yielded footage on YouTube by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on 19 July 2023 titled, “Afghan Women Protest Against Forced Closure Of Beauty Salons”. This longer video report shows various protest scenes and also depicts moments that match the clip being fact-checked, for instance, at 0:11.
The description of the video further states: “Afghan women demonstrated in Kabul on July 19 to demand the Taliban authorities back down from their decree ordering the closure of all beauty salons. The women say the shutdown would leave their families with no income. Taliban officials say beauty salons are forbidden under Shari’a law.”
Women in Afghanistan were protesting against the ban requiring the closure of beauty salons at the time. The demonstrators reportedly chanted the slogan, “work, bread and justice”, which matches the captions of X and Instagram posts from 19 July 2023.
Soch Fact Check thus rates the claim as false.
Virality
The clip was shared on X here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, the video was posted here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The video does not show Afghan women protesting and chanting in support of Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan recently. It is old and unrelated to the airstrikes, having appeared in July 2023 amid reports of Afghan women protesting the Taliban ban on beauty salons. Furthermore, in the original videos, protesters did not chant “Pakistan Zindabad”.
Background image in cover photo: Human Rights Watch
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