Dhaka, protests at university over gender issue

Since November 2013, the Bangladesh government has officially recognised the transgender community by admitting them on identity documents as a third gender in addition to male and female. However, the inclusion of the issue of inclusion in school education is also causing debate. The case of a teacher who was fired for blatantly tearing out the pages of a book is provoking demonstrations supported by Islamic fundamentalists.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - One of the best private universities in Bangladesh has sparked a heated debate that has reached the campus on social media and even the government, after the university fired a teacher - presumably - because he publicly criticized the inclusion of the rights of transgender in the National Curriculum and Textbook Board as per Dhaka.

Brac University said in a statement that Professor Asif Mahtab Utsha "was a part-time lecturer and was no longer under contract", while he said he taught regularly on weekends until he was fired on Sunday last.

In a video that went viral, Mahtab gave a speech against the rights of transgender people and also against homosexuality, during which he was filmed tearing a page from the Ministry of Education-approved seventh-grade textbook which contained a story also starring a transgender person. The gesture occurred after a Muslim fundamentalist group launched a national campaign to oppose the government's policies on the rights of these people.

Mahtab claims to have been fired for his stance which led some groups of students on campus to form a human chain in front of the main entrance of the university on January 23rd, chanting slogans against transgender people and saying they were against the initiatives undertaken from the university and the government. Yet since November 2013, the government of Dhaka has officially recognized the transgender gender as a third in addition to male and female.

Following the Brac University affair, the Minister of Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Naufel accused the Islamic fundamentalist group of attempting to create instability by raising religious questions around an educational issue. For his part, Naufel also said he was willing to review the national curriculum if proven critical issues were to emerge.

A Catholic professor from a missionary college in Bangladesh - who wishes to remain anonymous - commented to AsiaNews that "it is necessary for students to have a clear knowledge of the transgender issue. However, it seems to me that there are no errors and distortions on the part of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board. Students must have adequate knowledge so that no discrimination against these people occurs."