 |
BEIRUT: The family of a south Lebanon girl depicted in a photo that went viral alleging to show a starving child from a besieged Syrian border town [Madaya] has expressed anger over the incident. "They took it too far this time," Rosine Mazeh, the grandmother of 7-year-old Marianna Mazeh, told Al-Jadeed from their village of Tay Filsey in a report broadcast Saturday. She said the photo of her sm...iling brown-haired, blue-eyed granddaughter was originally posted to Facebook three years ago and had been doctored several times in the past by individuals promoting different causes. Most recently, the photo was circulated in a side-by-side with images depicting a skeletal figure said to be suffering from malnutrition as a result of a Syrian army siege in the town of Madaya, located several kilometers east of Lebanon's border. Several other photos circulating on social media and picked up by some international news agencies that alleged to show starvation from the town have also been revealed as fakes. "It has affected her a lot," Mazeh said. "Every time someone brings it up she puts her head down and becomes shy. At school, they keep on talking about the topic. She's not comfortable with it at all." Abdel-Wahhab Mazeh, the girl's uncle, said the photo was taken outside a mini market in their village where she had gone to buy chewing gum. "When we saw this, we tried as hard as we could to show that this picture wasn't right," he told Al-Jadeed, pointing to a location on the ground where he said she was standing when the photo was taken. The girl and her father spoke during a separate report broadcast Saturday on Al-Manar from outside their home. "I live in Tayr Filsey, not Madaya, and I am fine," she said." http:// |
