Blame it on the girls

In a shocking display of what experts term is utter disrespect towards women, a Dhaka school has recently set a question for its seventh graders construing women's way of clothing as being responsible for harassment.

During the first-term exam on Islam and Moral Studies paper on Tuesday, students of National Ideal School and College came across the "discriminatory and provocative" question in the creative section.

Question 8 of the paper says: "Faria is a class-VII student of Ideal School. She tries to portray herself as ultra-modern through her way of clothing and movement. Local ill-mannered boys stalk her on her way to school and coaching. Compelled, her mother either herself accompanies her to the coaching or sends someone else with her. Religious Studies teacher Sharmin Ma'am said it is possible to avoid many untoward incidents if men and women maintain decency and wear decent clothes."

Then there were four questions, the first of which was: "What is decency?"

And the last one was: "In what way can Faria conduct herself to protect herself from the stalkers?"

As the matter came to light, the school authorities yesterday suspended Nur Uddin, the Islamic Studies teacher who had set the questions.

"He's made a major mistake," said Maksud Uddin, principal of the school.

"We asked him [Nur] to explain in seven days why he had set such questions," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Maksud said it's the subject teachers who set the questions on respective papers and it was not possible for him to individually check each and every one of them.

However, it was not the first incident of setting such controversial questions in academic tests.

In May, Holy Cross Girls' High School, one of the country's most reputed educational institutions, set a question in Islamic Studies paper of Class-X in the first-term exams, holding women's dress responsible for sexual harassments.

The school authorities later apologised for the question after it was published in the media.

Noted educationist Rasheda K Chowdhury thinks projection of women this way will not only create a negative impression on women but will also have a lasting effect on the minds of the students from a very early age.

"The aim of our education is to make enlightened human beings by infusing the values of humanity, human rights and sense of mutual respects. We cannot teach students such things that amount to disregarding the rights of women," she told The Daily Star.

Rasheda, also the executive director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), said the school authorities must caution their teachers against using any misconception or sensitive ideas in their academic activities.

"Since these incidents happened in the capital, it came to notice. I don't know what's going on in schools in rural areas," said Rasheda.

On May 5, a first-grader female student of Mohammadpur Preparatory Higher Secondary School in the capital allegedly was sexually assaulted by a school staff.

On April 14, the country was shaken by an incident of assaults on women at the TSC of Dhaka University during the Bengali New Year celebrations.