Recently, a video was circulated on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by an account named Hindu Voice, claiming to show a scene of a young woman’s Halala or Hilla marriage with an elderly man in Bangladesh.
See the video circulated on X here (Archive).
The same video was also circulated claiming to be a normal wedding video of a young woman with an elderly Maulvi (religious scholar) in Bangladesh. See videos circulated with this claim here (Archive) and here (Archive).
Fact-Check
Rumor Scanner Team’s investigation reveals that the video, circulated on the internet claiming to be a Hilla marriage between an elderly man and a young woman, is not real but is a scripted or fabricated video being promoted with the controversial claim.
In the investigation of the video, a reverse image search of several of its keyframes led to the same video circulated on November 28 on a Facebook page named ‘Wedding Studio’.
Furthermore, by reviewing the page, multiple videos featuring the elderly man and the young woman seen in the video were found. See some of these videos here,here andhere. In addition to these, multiple videos claiming to show their Gaye Halud (pre-wedding turmeric ceremony) were also circulated. See some of these videos here,here andhere.
Observing the ‘Wedding Studio’ page also confirmed the presence of the elderly man and the young woman from the discussed video in different videos. In these, the elderly man is seen in a different role and the young woman is seen as the wife of a different person in another video here.
Subsequently, a review of the page’s ‘About’ section revealed that the page is run by a Saudi expatriate named Delwar. It also states that the ‘Wedding Studio’ page does not cover any actual wedding ceremonies. They make the videos for the purpose of preserving their memories. This confirms that the wedding videos circulated on the page are not real; they are essentially scripted videos.
What is Hilla Marriage?
The custom of Halal or Hilla marriage is essentially a superstition. According to this superstition, if a husband divorces his wife and later wishes to remarry her, the divorced wife must first marry another man. Only after that, if the previous husband agrees, can he remarry the wife. Essentially, the practice of requiring a divorced wife to first marry another man before the former husband can remarry her is known as Hilla marriage. Under the prevailing law of Bangladesh, the custom of Hilla marriage is a punishable offense.
Therefore, a scripted video of an elderly man marrying a young woman has been circulated on the internet, claiming to be a real Hilla marriage incident in Bangladesh; which is completely false.
