Students from the Sociology Department of Dhaka University (DU) held a procession on campus to protest the "Islamophobic" label directed at Samina Luthfa, an associate professor in the department.
The students delivered speeches in front of the Raju Sculpture after marching from the Faculty of Social Sciences on Monday afternoon.
"We are standing here today to speak out against unfair labeling. We protest the categorization of our professor as anti-religious," said the students.
Tasrifa Afroz Emi, a former student of Dhaka University's sociology department, said: "We have been able to overthrow a fascist government, but the element of fascism still exists strongly. We're seeing a lot of different types of mobs. Samina Luthfa Ma'am and Kamrul Hasan Sir are being targeted and hatred is being spread against them. Why do these people have to be oppressed when they are in power?”
"We know who spoke against autocracy for the last 15 years. People who have spoken without thinking about their own interests, always standing by the students, why should they be persecuted today?” she added.
Aruna Tahsin, another former student of the sociology department, said: "They are not working on this curriculum from today. They've been working on education for a long time. When there was dissatisfaction across the country with the National Education Policy-2021, especially the parents, we saw that a few teachers came forward with their experiences.”
Aruna Tahsin said that people in power in the past have also done injustice to these people.
"We know which teachers stood by the students during the protests, but now we feel unsafe when they face obstacles in doing their work.”
Abdul Ahad, a student of the Sociology department, said: “She was unfairly labeled Islamophobic. We protest that she has been dropped in a planned manner.”
“She never made any religious statements in class. She does not impose her ideals on anyone. Wherever there is politics of tagging, we will protest against it,” he told the correspondent.
Some teachers of the sociology department were also present beside the students in the protest rally. But they didn't make any statements.
