The father of one of the three young women who were denied permission to travel to Nepal and harassed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport because they were unmarried was also subjected to insulting remarks over the phone.
In a statement submitted to the Special Branch (SB) of police, Rifa Tamanna alleged that a police officer made derogatory insinuations about her character and mocked her family’s financial circumstances after learning that her father was a farmer.
The remarks were so humiliating that her father became seriously distressed. He later died while undergoing treatment after a road accident.
The three young women went to the airport on August 8 to travel to Kathmandu for a holiday. However, immigration police subjected them to a series of intrusive questions and refused to let them travel. They subsequently filed a writ petition over the incident.
On 29 September, the High Court, hearing the petition, directed the authorities to resolve the applicants’ complaints within seven days and submit a compliance report.
Last Thursday, the three women appeared before the Special Branch and gave statements. Their lawyers, Mumtaz Mou and Iffat Hasan Shammi, accompanied them.
In her statement, Rifa Tamanna, a student in the Department of Bangla at Thakurgaon Government Women’s College, said immigration police began treating them in a hostile and vulgar manner at the immigration desk. Police also made derogatory and mocking remarks about the photograph on her student ID card.
At one point, an immigration police officer called her father and began questioning him about the family’s sources of income.
Rifa said the officer told her father over the phone: “Do you keep track of what your daughter does and where she goes? How can the daughter of a farmer afford to travel abroad for pleasure?”
Rifa alleged that the officer’s harsh and humiliating remarks about her character and foreign travel caused her father severe psychological distress.
In the midst of this emotional turmoil, she was injured in an accident on 17 August and died while receiving treatment.
“The officer who behaved insensitively towards her father over the phone was tall and slender,” she said in her statement.
Faisal Ahmed Rafi, chief psychologist at an organisation called MindWiz, said when people hear vulgar comments or baseless allegations about a family member or someone they love, they may immediately experience psychological shock.
“Such experiences can cause trauma, making it temporarily difficult for a person to regulate their emotions, assess a situation and respond normally,” he told TIMES, adding, even when people know that an allegation is false or unbelievable, such remarks can inflict deeper psychological wounds.
“This can leave a person feeling humiliated and cause intense emotional distress over what has been said about a loved one. Such situations are particularly difficult for people who are already emotionally vulnerable or under physical and psychological stress,” he said.
TIMES has obtained written statements from all three young women. The Special Branch has not made any comment on the allegations.
Contacted for comment, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, special superintendent of the immigration wing [SS Immigration] at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, declined to comment.
Asked why he would not comment, he said, “I am not willing to comment on a matter that is under judicial consideration. Please excuse me.”
Amount to sexual harassment
Another victim, Naznin, said the police repeatedly asked them irrelevant and personal questions without properly examining their valid travel documents. They also made derogatory remarks about their coordinator in Nepal.
When she repeatedly asked the officers to provide written or legal grounds for their decision, one of the officials on duty explicitly told them, “You are unmarried, so you will not be allowed to travel.”
They were subsequently escorted out of the airport through the arrivals terminal without being shown any written order or given any formal explanation. They were also threatened with more serious trouble if they remained there.
The third woman, Sohani Islam Samapti, alleged that the remarks made to them not only crossed the bounds of decency but also amounted to sexual harassment.
While Sohani was in the immigration room, she was told to call the dean of her university. The officers also asked her to produce a bank statement. When she could not produce one, an immigration officer asked: “Then does your money come from illegal sources?”
“An officer sitting on a chair in the office made an insinuating remark towards us, saying, ‘I can understand what kind of work you are going to do,’” Sohani said in her written statement.
She said the officer looked directly at certain part of their bodies with a leering gaze while speaking to them.
According to the statements, three police personnel were present in the room, one of whom was named Abdullah.
In their written statements to the police investigators, all three women gave consistent and clear explanations of their travel plans in response to questions about the purpose of their trip.
They said their primary purpose was ordinary tourism and to build up their travel history in their passports. As they were associated with the Bangladesh International Mediation Society (BIMS), which has a registered branch in Nepal, they had also planned, as part of the trip, to meet Nepal’s chief justice informally and attend a dinner through Simran Napit, BIMS’s coordinator in Nepal.
Simran Napit works at the Registrar’s Office of the Supreme Court of Nepal.
The women clarified that the trip was not an official visit, so they did not have a formal invitation letter, nor was one required. They had sufficient documentation, including return flight tickets and hotel bookings.
They also said that, as they worked or interned with BIMS, they were not required to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) for a personal tourist trip abroad.
The three women said they had submitted a written complaint to the additional inspector general of police on August 30, before approaching the High Court. In the complaint, they described the humiliating incident at the airport, the derogatory remarks about their financial circumstances and professional associations, and the loss of Rifa’s father. They sought an investigation and punishment for those responsible.
Their detailed statements were recorded for the first time on September 6 in the presence of Sharmin Jahan, additional superintendent of police (Diplomatic and Protocol), and A T M Shaheen Ahmed, special superintendent of police (Immigration-Administration).
However, receiving no response or remedy to their complaint, they went to the High Court, which after an initial hearing on their writ petition on 29 September, issued a rule. The court asked why the decision to prevent the three women from travelling abroad, despite their having valid documents, should not be declared without lawful authority and illegal.
It also asked why specific directives should not be issued to the relevant authorities to ensure that adult female citizens with valid travel documents are not prevented from travelling abroad on discriminatory, gender-based grounds, such as being unmarried or travelling without a guardian.
At the same time, the court directed the authorities to dispose of the written complaint the petitioners had submitted to the additional inspector general of police on August 30 without delay.
Following the HC order, the SB launched an investigation into the allegations. As part of the process, letters were sent to the three women on 6 October asking them to appear SB office in Rajarbagh at 10am on Thursday for recording statements.
“The process of recording the statements of the three affected women has been completed in accordance with the court’s directions. The police will now analyse CCTV footage, relevant documents and other evidence,” their lawyer Ishrat told TIMES.
She expressed hope that those responsible would face action, saying such action would send an important message.
According to the lawyer, not only the three women, but male passengers also experience various forms of harassment. Even passengers with valid documents face unnecessary questioning and obstructions when travelling abroad, a situation she said was not seen in many other countries.
Following media coverage of the three women’s harassment, many other people who have experienced similar treatment have taken to Facebook to share their own accounts.
Former inspector general of police Baharul Alam said vulgar or humiliating treatment of passengers was contrary to the professional responsibilities and code of conduct of immigration officers.
“Given that similar allegations have been raised repeatedly, a separate module on human dignity, respectful treatment of passengers and professional ethics should be incorporated into the training of immigration officers. It is particularly important to train officers assigned to immigration desks on these issues,” he said.
Baharul said officers must conduct themselves according to professional standards and should not allow prevailing social prejudices or suspicions to influence their behaviour.
