Bangladesh riots. What’s wrong with this picture?

Here’s a story which just doesn’t fit the facts it purports to describe.

A story in the Bangladesh press, datelined 1550 Bangladesh time May 18, 2013 Common enough story. Staff arrive at Bangladesh garment factory, find redundancy notices, riot and vandalise cars.

But look at the picture. 

They’re all men: many smiling, the one at front hardly old enough to be let away from his mum.

Are they really angry Bangladeshi garment workers – almost all of whom are women? Look a lot more like a gang of teenage boys to me, out for pleasant Saturday afternoon of rioting and window smashing. Kind of thing any unemployed teenage lad will do, given half a chance.

But it’s an astonishingly common sight in Bangladesh news stories. Those “angry workers” never look like garment workers and rarely look angry. They look like better-dressed and better mannered versions of a gang of English football supporters, off to have a punch up with the other side after a boring draw in the Second Division.

I’ve no idea whether this picture is of the riot it claims to portray. But I do know that not all Bangladesh garment riots are the spontaneous reaction of exploited women to yet another outrage by their oppressive employers. And that some agitators are stupid enough to boast about what they get up to

Just worth remembering next time you feel tempted to take a press report about Bangladesh at face value