A leading British newspaper,The Daily Mail has come under fire after publishing a Moroccan woman’s innocent bath selfie, wrongly depicting her as Europe’s so-called “first female suicide bomber”.
In reality, the picture is of a 32-year old lady from Morocco named, Nabila Bakkatha.
Bakkatha said that a friend of her sold the pictures of her to a French journalist, claiming they were of the woman somehow involved with the Paris attacks.
This Moroccan mother is trying to set the record straight after numerous media outlets ran two pictures of Bakkatha wrongly identifying her as Hasna Ait Boulahcen, the 26-year-old woman, who died in an explosion last week when security forces raided an apartment building in search of the architect of the Paris attacks.
“I have never posted any photograph of me in a bath tub (on social media),” Bakkatha told CNN in an attempt to clear her name.
Several other newspapers used the images, which featured a prominent watermark of the Mail’s logo, including the New York Post.
The bathtub photo appeared on the cover of the New York Post.
“My life changed drastically, I stopped going to work, and I cannot go out anymore as I live in continuous fear,” she commented, adding: “I am sure I will face a lot of problems if I travel to France.”
The Daily Mail was contacted for comment but did not respond by the time this story went live.
This innocent Moroccan woman was falsely portrayed as a suicide bomber by media outlets, including AJ+.https://t.co/FNBluP6LN9
— AJ+ (@ajplus) November 23, 2015