Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Thursday withdrew its new guidelines regarding the dress code of its staff.
"No official circular had been issued and no policy-level decision was made regarding the matter," the Executive Director and spokesperson of the central bank, Arief Hossain Khan, told The Dhaka Stream.
''When Governor Ahsan H Mansur came to know about the widespread criticism, he expressed anger. And the guideline regarding the dress code was withdrawn by his instruction,'' Arief Hossain added.
He also clarified that the suggestion for wearing modest dress was brought up during meetings at the departmental level, considering social context and maintaining professional decorum.
On Wednesday night, the Bangladesh Bank mandated that its employees wear "professional and modest attire", keeping in mind the "social context" of the country.
According to the document, both male employees and female employees have been given guidelines on how to dress, but the prohibitions mainly targeted the latter.
Most instructions remain simple, relating to wearing formal clothes and avoiding casual outfits.
While men can continue to wear short-sleeved formal shirts, women have been prohibited from wearing any article of clothing that has short sleeves, a bizarre decision, especially considering the country's hot and humid climate.
For female employees, short dresses and leggings have also been prohibited.
Instead, they were asked to wear sarees, salwar kameez, simple headscarves, and other "professional, modest and simple clothes".
Men have been instructed to wear formal shirts with long sleeves or half-sleeves alongside formal pants and footwear.
They, however, have been instructed to refrain from wearing jeans or gabardines.
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