Dhaka, Oct 14: At least 37 prominent Bangladeshi citizens have expressed grave concern over demands to punish a Dhaka University teacher over alleged remarks on a student's attire and a separate incident involving the defacement of a Rabindranath Tagore mural in the capital, local media reported.
In a statement on Tuesday, they warned that such growing incidents risk emboldening religious extremists and deepening communal tensions in Bangladesh. The signatories called for impartial investigations into both incidents and punishment for those involved.
Conflicting accounts have emerged over a classroom dispute at Dhaka University, where a master's student accused an English department teacher, Tasneem Siraj Mahbub, of commenting on students' attire and financial circumstances, while the teacher denied the allegations, Bangladesh's leading newspaper The Daily Star reported.
In a recent social media post, the student alleged that Mahbub had told a classmate wearing a niqab (face veil) that she could leave her face, hands and feet uncovered instead of observing purdah so strictly.
Following the exchange, the student and two others walked out of the classroom. She later lodged a written complaint with the university administration on behalf of a student organisation, seeking action against the teacher.
Mahbub, however, rejected the claims in a social media post, stating that she had neither asked the student to change her clothes or remove her niqab nor instructed her to leave the classroom.
Alleging that the incident was being exploited for political gains, the signatories stressed that freedom of dress was a matter of personal liberty and that misunderstandings should be resolved through dialogue rather than politicisation, The Daily Star reported.
The statement also condemned the defacement of Tagore's portrait on a wall at the Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka's Segunbagicha area on October 9 by several people under the banner of the Rashtra Sanglap Forum.
Several videos circulating on social media showed a woman using a brush to smear black ink across Tagore's mural. A police officer from Shahbagh Police Station intervened and moved her away from the spot.
Following a commotion involving the woman and her associates, police detained them and took them away in a van. The group was also heard chanting slogans during the incident, Bangladeshi daily Dhaka Tribune reported.
According to the signatories, the two incidents were linked by a common attempt to exploit religious sentiments, potentially fuelling extremism and heightening communal and social tensions.
They recalled how Pakistani rulers had politically portrayed Tagore as anti-Muslim in the 1960s, comparing that campaign with the recent defacement of his portrait.
"Language, literature, art and culture are indivisible common heritage of humanity," the statement said, emphasising that no religious, geographical or ideological differences should be used to divide cultural traditions.
--IANS