Is Saudi Arabia about to behead six schoolgirls for dancing? Fact Check

Rumours claim Saudi Arabia is preparing to behead six school girls for “acting indecently” with their male school friends.

The rumours lead back to an article that claim the girls were celebrating the birthday of a girl identified as Fathima Al Kwaini, and that the girls were dancing with male school friends. The article also asserts that while the girls were sentenced to execution, the boys were only told “not to be victimized”.

The article, which in at least one case was published on Tvrtinfo.com, and reads in part –

Western countries are being urged to intervene in a case where 6 young school girls facing execution for acting indecently at a friends house.
Fathima Al Kwaini and her friends that included three male friends have celebrated Kwaini’s birthday at a friends house. A neighbor supposedly an assistant of an Imam of a mosque close by has reported this to Saudi Arabia’s religious police. When the police arrived the girls were dancing with their male friends and they were arrested immediately.

The story is bogus, as is the website tvrtinfo.com which is related to a network of fake news websites connected to Macedonia. Such sites often publish spoof news with an anti-Muslim and pro-Christian, or patriotic narrative, to which this is no different.

The specific article about 6 girls about to be executed in Saudi Arabia as been spreading online since 2017, albeit on different websites. However this rehashed and regurgitated article continually fails to provide any evidence or reputable sources to back up its claims.

The article has spread under various headlines, including –

Saudi Arabia to Behead 6 School Girls for Being With Their Male Friends Without Parents or a Guardian

and…

Saudi Arabia Is About To Behead 6 School Girls For Acting Indecently With Their Male Friends

Since the story has been published by a known spoof news website and has been spreading for a number of years, we rank the story as clearly fake.