ALLEGATION OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT DU theatre dept chair steps down

Agitating students confine the chairman, Prof Saiful Islam (inset) of Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Dhaka University in a classroom on Monday protesting alleged sexual harassment of a female student. Photo: STAR

Agitating students confine the chairman, Prof Saiful Islam (inset) of Theatre and Performance Studies department at Dhaka University in a classroom on Monday protesting alleged sexual harassment of a female student. Photo: Amran Hossain

The chairman of Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Dhaka University today tendered his resignation following students’ demonstration over alleged sexual harassment of a female student.

When the news spread that the teacher “physically harassed” the student when she had gone to his house as per his instruction, DU students confined the teacher in the classroom.

The teacher, Prof Saiful Islam, later submitted his resignation letter to the university registrar expressing his interest to step down from all administrative and academic works for proper investigation into the matter.

The DU syndicate will take a decision on this later in the afternoon, our DU correspondent reports.

The student, a sixth semester student of the department submitted an allegation letter to the Proctor and VC yesterday.

In the letter, she alleged that Saiful invited her to his house on September 13, where he tried to physically harass her, according to acting proctor Amjad Ali.

When Saiful came to take classes today, the student confronted him about the issue. After an altercation, the students confined him to the classroom around 11:30am.

The acting proctor arrived at the scene around 12:30pm and arranged to have Saiful moved to his office, where he was still confined at the time of filing this report.

Source: The Daily Star