One hundred and forty-seven citizens, including human rights activists, lawyers, academics, artistes and students in a statement on Friday urged the government to ensure safety of Narsingdi Government College Bangla department鈥檚 associate professor Nadira Yeasmin.
They also demanded to identify those who made offensive comments and gave threats to Nadira on Facebook, and bring them to justice, and a strong stand against false propaganda and online harassment.
Nadira had been facing threats and targeted in a social media smear campaign to remove her from her post in the name of religion, read the statement.
Earlier, three Islamic organisations in Narsingdi threatened the college authorities that the college had to take responsibility for 鈥榙eplorable situation鈥� if Nadira was not removed from the college, according to the statement.
The statement also said that Nadira had been working for women鈥檚 rights for a long time and her organisation 鈥楴ari Angan鈥� playing a role in building self-confidence of many female students.
Mentioning that spreading women鈥檚 development and growth as anti-Islam is a propaganda against freedom of thinking, academic freedom and human rights, the statement said, 鈥楽uch pressure, threats and incitement of social hatred in the name of religious organisations was setting a bad example for the education system and educational institutions.鈥�
Incidents like these kept happening due to the silence and inaction of the government in terms of repeated insults, disrespect and harassment of women, the statement stated.
The signatories included photographer and human rights activist Shahidul Alam, Dhaka University professor Gitiara Nasreen, national minority rights protection activist Yan Yan, anthropologist and writer Rahnuma Ahmed, Association for Land Reform and Development executive director Shamsul Huda, journalist and researcher Saydia Gulrukh.
