The recent incident of a college teacher being harassed by a man in police uniform for wearing teep has stirred widespread outrage.
Several people have taken to the streets and social media to show solidarity with the teacher, with some men and women posting photos of themselves wearing the teep in a show of protest.
In the wake of the public outcry, accused Constable Nazmul Tarek was suspended on Monday. A two-member probe committee has been formed to investigate the complaint against him.
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Dr Lata Samaddar, a Theatre and Media Studies lecturer at Tejgaon College in Dhaka, filed the complaint with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station on Saturday. According to the complaint, a man in police uniform harassed and threatened to kill her for wearing a teep, a decorative mark worn in the middle of the forehead by women in some South Asian countries.
Several rights-based organizations, including Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS), Naripokkho, and WE CAN, released statements demanding punishment for the perpetrator.
Rokeya Kabir, founder and executive director of BNPS, told Dhaka Tribune: “If a member of a law enforcement agency has the audacity to harass a woman for wearing teep, imagine what other men do on the streets. This man [the constable] needs to be tried so that everyone gets the message that no person, regardless of his profession, has the right to make derogatory comments about a woman’s appearance.”
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In a statement, WE CAN expressed concern that the incident was the result of “the recruitment of misogynistic and regressive people” into the police force.
Rezwana Karim Snigdha, associate professor of anthropology at Jahangirnagar University, said Islamist hardliners had propagated the false belief that teep wearing was a sin and a sign of Hinduism over several decades.
“The teep has deep roots in Bengali culture and women have been wearing it here for a very long time, regardless of their religion. The teep is a sign of secularism and this is probably why it irks intolerant people so much,” she told Dhaka Tribune.
Snigdha said that she herself wears a teep almost every day and has faced criticism for it as well.
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Angela Muhuri, an English as a second language instructor in the US, said she loved to adorn her forehead with a teep.
“Women get harassed on public transport and in other places for wearing a teep, shakha, or sindoor, or for showing hair. How has bigotry spread to this level in this country [Bangladesh]?” she asked.
On Sunday, lawmaker and renowned actor Suborna Mustafa condemned the incident, saying: “Where in the constitution of Bangladesh or in which law does it say that a woman cannot wear a teep?”
Addressing Parliament, she demanded action against the accused policeman to ensure that such harassment would not be repeated.
