Images that appear to show a flag made of human hair has been shared thousands of times in social media posts that claim it was made of the hair of Iranian women protesting the Islamic republic's ruling regime in September 2022. However, the claim is false. The images were stills of a video installation made by Belgian artist Edith Dekyndt in 2014 -- years before the protests in Iran. The artist previously said in an interview that her artwork was made on the French Caribbean island of Martinique to represent its colonial past.

A picture of a flag made of black hair was shared here on Facebook on September 21, 2022.

Its Hindi-language caption translates as: "World’s most powerful image comes from Iran, where local women protesters have chopped off their hair and hoisted it as a flag."

The post goes on to describe that the protests in Iran were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, after she was detained by the country's notorious morality police for not properly covering her hair.

Iranian women, including university students and even schoolgirls, are at the forefront of the biggest wave of social unrest to grip Iran in almost three years -- they have been marching without the mandatory head covering, burning hijabs and cutting off their hair.

Rights groups say at least 108 people, including children, have died in the continued crackdown on the demonstrations, AFP reported.

The photo also circulated alongside a...

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