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FACT BRIEF

Was a female Afghan fighter pilot stoned to death in public?

By Alexis Tereszcuk
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NO

Afghan fighter pilot Safia Ferozi gave an interview to Stars and Stripes, published on Dec. 20, 2021, confirming she is alive. Social media posts from earlier in 2021 claimed Ferozi was stoned to death in public as the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

Ferozi told the publication that she left Afghanistan as the Taliban took over and eventually moved to the U.S.

An image from an Aug. 19, 2021, Facebook post claiming Ferozi had been killed included an actual photo of the pilot in uniform. However, a graphic image that accompanied many other social media posts purporting to be of Ferozi were not of the pilot but of another woman who was killed in Afghanistan in 2015 after she was accused of burning a Quran.

Ferozi told Stars and Stripes she believed she could have been killed had she remained in Afghanistan.

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Stars and Stripes Female ex-pilot in Afghan military surfaces in US, defying rumors that she had been killed
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.