An image circulating online shows Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former U.S. President Barack Obama bowing before Iran’s leader. Users sharing the image have called it “the absolute low point in American history.”
Fact Check
Upon investigation, we found the claim image to be digitally altered.
We conducted a Google reverse image search on each individual separately. We found the image on the Getty Images Platform. The original photograph of Khamenei is from the inauguration ceremony for former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, held on August 3, 2005, in Tehran, Iran’s capital city. It was captured by AFP, photographer Atta Kenare, and shows Khamenei looking toward Ahmadinejad while former Iranian presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashami Rafsanjani, are seen sitting next to Khamenei.
Also, the image of Obama bowing has been taken from an official White House photograph, from May 8, 2009. It shows Obama in the Oval Office bending to allow a White House staff member’s 5-year-old son, Jacob Philadelphia, to touch his hair to see if the president’s hair felt like his own.
Conclusion
Thus, the viral image is manipulated. It combines two separate photographs from different years and contexts, falsely presenting them as a single event.
