DU to verify identities of students who wear niqab, hijab through female staff
The female staff are required to handle the process with due consideration of the students’ personal freedom to wear the clothing garments and any privacy concerns, DU says
Dhaka University (DU) has decided to verify the identities of students who wear niqab and hijab through female teachers, officials or staff.
According to a statement signed by Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, acting director of the DU Public Relations Office, the decision was made during a meeting of the deans' committee today (6 March) at the university's vice chancellor's (VC) conference room. The meeting was chaired by VC Professor Niaz Ahmed Khan.
As per the decision, if required, female assistant proctors will assist in verifying students' identities.
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The female staff are required to handle the process with due consideration of the students' personal freedom to wear the clothing garments and any privacy concerns.
The feasibility of implementing fingerprinting or a biometric identification system for this purpose will also be evaluated in due course, the post reads.
The decision comes in the backdrop of an incident involving DU student Tahmina Akhter Tamanna from the 2022-23 session of the Bangla Department, who shared her experience in a Facebook post of being requested to remove her niqab during an exam.
In her post today, Tamanna described how an invigilator asked her to reveal her face while signing the attendance sheet. She was hesitant, standing in silence with her head lowered, but the teacher insisted, saying, "Sit down and take off your niqab; I need to check."
As she refused, the invigilator refrained from signing her exam sheet and engaged in a discussion with other faculty members.
Later, the department head and a female teacher approached her, questioning her refusal to show her face. The female teacher, while empathetic, tried to explain that "there are rules for exams" and that identity verification was necessary.
Tamanna said she started crying and struggled to focus on her exam.
She further stated that she held no grievances against her teachers, as they were simply following the rules, but she strongly advocated for a systematic change that would allow hijab and niqab-wearing students to verify their identity in a respectful manner without compromising their personal choices.
She urged the university administration to introduce an alternative method for identity verification, ensuring that niqab and hijab-wearing students do not face similar difficulties in the future.
