Many people want to see the university as a mirror of society. But a university is not that. As a social science practitioner, I know that if the university only reflects society, the space would become too small to create new knowledge. But the university is a place to create new knowledge. We need new knowledge in science, philosophy, arts, and social sciences. Because a university is part of society, conflicts and struggles happen in it.
If we look at the history of movements at educational institutions, we will see that the students of Jahangirnagar University are fighters, and the women have always been at the forefront of movements.
In 1993, an incident of sexual harassment occurred on a Jahangirnagar University bus, and for the first time in Bangladesh, female students of a university rose up collectively in protest. We, the female students of the time, employed unprecedented tactics and ensured justice.
Back then, we weren't even familiar with the term "sexual harassment". We only stood up against "bad behavior", against injustice. Later that year, female students had to form another movement against a rule that said women must return to their dormitories by sunset, as the incident on the bus happened around 8:00pm.
The university administration, instead of holding the perpetrators accountable, sent letters to the female students' parents, asking them to meet with the university administration because "the girls often loiter in the bushes".
The administration blamed the female students and tried to confine and discipline them through restrictions.
I had my Master's exams ahead of me. So, under the pressure of studies, I didn't know the details immediately. But when my friends started the movement, I came to know everything. When I asked my father about it, he told me that he, too, had received such a letter from the administration. But he asked, "How could a university write such a vulgar letter?" Through relentless demonstrations, the students defeated the administration's excesses. But it was not easy.
In 1995, when a female student was harassed by a male student on campus, the female students organised a movement. But due to the administration's trickery, that movement failed. Three years later, Jahangirnagar University students organised what is well known as the anti-rape movement.
It must be said that because of the "failed movement" of 1995, the women students were much better organised by 1998. I remember the slanderous remarks the administration made against us; we preserved them in a compilation titled Ashuchi (The Impure).
In the following decade, on every March 8, teachers and students submitted memoranda to the administration, demanding a policy against sexual harassment. Finally, in 2009, the High Court gave us a policy against sexual harassment in educational institutions and workplaces. The struggles of Jahangirnagar University's female students were acknowledged by the court. United, they have confronted fascist forces time and again. The male students stood behind them, too. Besides these, teachers and students of the university have been involved in countless other movements. The female students were at the forefront in recognising and protesting against "ragging".
Now, after 33 years, the JUCSU election is being held again. The female students of this university are fighters, and they will surely choose their rightful representatives. We await the new dawn that the students will bring.
The writer is a professor of anthropology at Jahangirnagar University.
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