Students of English Department at Dhaka University (DU) on Monday staged a protest against its teacher Tasneem Siraj Mahboob, alleging “racist, discriminatory behaviour, and hypocrisy” in the classroom.
During the demonstration, the students covered their mouths with black masks and displayed red cards against the associate professor.
They also voiced their protest against supporters of injustice.
The central theme of their protest was “#RedCardToRacistClassistAndHypocrite.”
Earlier, Tasneem was removed from her teaching duties following allegations that she verbally abused a master’s student for wearing a niqab, sparking a classroom walkout and formal demands for her dismissal.
The students alleged that she branded the student wearing niqab a “fundamentalist” and “terrorist” during a lecture on Wednesday, whilst publicly interrogating her religious attire.
Tazin Aziz Chaudhury, chairperson of the department, confirmed that the committee resolved to transfer Tasneem’s current courses to other faculty members. She added that the matter has been referred to higher university authorities, as formal disciplinary measures exceed the department’s mandate.
According to the complainant, who was sitting in the front row, the incident began when the lecturer ordered her to move, saying she felt “uncomfortable and unsafe”.
The student alleged that Tasneem subsequently criticised her niqab, questioned its Islamic jurisprudence, and cited her own pilgrimage to Makkah to argue that women leave their faces uncovered during Hajj.
Witnesses corroborated the account, noting that Tasneem demanded the student move to the back of the room because her face covering was “distracting”.
When the student and her classmates defended the choice as a matter of personal faith, a tense verbal exchange ensued, prompting the complainant and most of the class to walk out in protest.
