Claim: A video on social media claims that it shows Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb harassed by Pakistanis in the UK for not wearing a hijab.
Fact: The claim is false. Aurangzeb was heckled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters in London due to political differences, not because of her clothing.
On 26 September 2022, a social media user posted a video with a Hindi-language caption that translates to; “Pakistan’s minister Marriyum Aurangzeb has always sported a hijab on her head. Yesterday in London, she was drinking beer at a very expensive bar, Pakistanis came to know and they all started insulting her.”
Fact or Fiction?
Marriyum Aurangzeb was heckled in London due to political differences, not because of her clothing. Moreover, she was not drinking beer; the video shows her holding a soft drink can.
A keyword search shows several Pakistani, Indian and other international news outlets reported on the incident, which took place while Aurangzeb was attending the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
Dawn reported that “Videos widely shared on social media showed Aurangzeb being harassed and heckled by people wearing PTI colors in a shop. In another video, some of the same people chanting “chorni (thief) can be seen following a masked Aurangzeb, as the woman filming her says she “makes grand claims on television there and she does not have a dupatta on her head”. Although the woman does make this remark, the reason the crowd ambushes Aurangzeb is because of political differences not her clothing; and claims that state otherwise are misleading.
Aurangzeb also tweeted about the incident, stating that the hecklers were PTI supporters influenced by “toxic politics”. Journalists Syed Talat Hussain and Shiffa Z. Yousafzai also posted different versions of the video which clearly shows that the crowd were upset about the recent political situation in Pakistan.
Virality
Soch Fact Check conducted a CrowdTangle analysis for the 30-day period from 11 Sep to 11 Oct using the Hindi-language caption as key term
The results showed that the video in question received 768 interactions across 5 public posts on Facebook. It can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.
Conclusion: Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb was not heckled by Pakistanis in London for not covering her head or for drinking alcohol. The claim is misleading as the incident was political in nature.