By: Varun Kumar
February 12 2021
An image on social media falsely claims that Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg's original name is 'Ghazala Bhat
An image on social media falsely claims that Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg's original name is 'Ghazala BhatA viral image on social media claims that OpIndia published an article claiming that Thunberg was born into a Muslim family, and her real name is Ghazala Bhat. The posts show a screenshot of a purported OpIndia story and Thunberg wearing a hijab. However, this claim is false. The image of Thunberg wearing a hijab is edited, and OpIndia did not publish an article stating this. A girl's image in a green hijab was uploaded on the Pixabay website, and this image had been photoshopped to replace the unidentified girl's face with that of Thunberg. Thunberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg are her biological parents. Ernbeg also published a book that recounted how the family's experience of Thurberg's escalating influence and status as an environmental activist. Moreover, the OpIndia website has not published an article that claims Thunberg's real name is 'Ghazala Bhatt' at any point. The screenshot does not have the same interface as OpIndia's website. The font size and style are quite different, and the text in the viral image has several grammatical errors. The screenshot was also shared by singer Caralisa Monteiro and Pakistan-based journalist Omar Quraishi. Later, Monteiro removed it.