Photograph of girls in white dresses does not show child brides

Thousands of people have shared a post that shows a photograph of what it implies are child brides. But the photograph does not show this. 

The Facebook reel, which has over 2,600 shares, has a split screen and overlaid text that says: “Pedophilia is legal in some countries [sic].” The top half of the post shows a photo of a line of girls in white dresses holding hands with older men. 

But the image of the little girls actually shows them attending the weddings of their older relatives, rather than being brides themselves.

Where was the picture taken?

One of the earliest examples of the photo Full Fact could find online was in a 2009 article for a publication in Barbados. The article, which also includes other similar photos, says the photo and claim were sent to the author in an email about a mass wedding ceremony that took place in the Gaza Strip in 2009. 

The email says: “A gala event has occurred in Gaza…a mass wedding for four hundred and fifty couples; most of the grooms were in their mid to late twenties; most of brides were under ten. [sic]”

These photos appear all over the internet alongside the claim that the girls are child brides. But, this is not correct—the girls are relatives of the couples getting married.

Fact checkers, Snopes, reported that a Sky News journalist, Tim Marshall, attended and covered the wedding ceremony. He later wrote a blog to denounce the claims that the brides had been children. 

He wrote that the grooms held hands with their “young nieces and cousins”, who were “wearing white wedding dresses”. 

He said: “It never struck me for a moment that the little girls might later be described in the bloggersphere as the brides! How naive I am.”

Another photo published by United Press International shows girls in white dresses at the same event with the caption: “Palestinian girls, dressed as bridesmaids, during a mass wedding…The newly wedded brides held a separate closed-door celebration for their weddings.” 

An article published at the time similarly suggests that the real brides did not take a very visible role in the wedding celebrations. It reported: “450 brides shared none of the glamour, taking seats among the audience of around 1,000 party guests.”

Similarly, a photo from a different mass wedding in the same region in 2007 shows the younger sisters and cousins of the marrying couples wearing white dresses.

What does the rest of the reel show? 

Although the photo in the Facebook reel does not show child brides, footage that appears in the bottom half is a genuine episode of a Lebanese talk show that is discussing child marriage.

While Full Fact has not been able to verify that the English subtitles are correct, the video appears to show the host, Malek Maktabi, interviewing a 10-year-old girl and 25-year-old man who are engaged. 

According to the charity Girls Not Brides, Lebanon does not have an overall legal age of marriage—each of the 18 recognised religious groups set their own rules. The charity claims that 6% of Lebanese girls are married before they’re 18 and 1% married before 15. 

Countries often have two different legal ages for marriage depending on whether there is parental consent. The legal age of marriage in England and Wales increased to 18 (it was previously 16 with parental consent) in February 2023. 

According to UNICEF, the total number of girls married in childhood in 2022 was 12 million. This happens in many countries as shown by this interactive map. 

Full Fact has written before about other images that are either not real or have been taken out of context. These posts can spread quickly online and appear very convincing. We have written guides on how to identify misleading images and videos. 

Image courtesy of OJjnr