Aditi Sharif :
As an ex-student of a public university, I had the privilege of observing the activities of public universities because I still had membership in different public university-based social media groups. For a few days, I observed that students from various higher educational institutions got agitated against a judicial verdict that reclaims 56% quota in the recruitment process of government jobs. Students from different higher educational institutions, mostly led by public universities, peacefully protested against this verdict. This protest is closely associated with the Quota Reform Movement, held in 2018 where students wanted a logical redistribution of quotas in government services. In response, the Government annulled the whole quota system and approached the court to activate the annulment despite knowing the fact that it was unconstitutional. Therefore, the court verdicts against it. In this regard, a reasonable question can appear in anyone’s mind: if the government knew that the annulment of the whole quota system would be unconstitutional, then why did they make this type of fake promise? However, I don’t want to bring this discussion in this write-up.
The movement took a different path when our Prime Minister disrespected the students involved in the reform movement and indicated that these students were associated with ‘anti-national’ activities. As a keen observer of this movement, I noticed that students in the movement, completely comply with nationalist ideologies. They used to carry the national flags, recite from Rabindranath Tagore, and often use popular nationalistic slogans. Even a significant number of students didn’t want the complete annulment of the entire quota system. As they had a clear conception of Positive Discrimination, Then why did they consider these courageous students as ‘Anti-nationals’? Frankly speaking, it is not the first time that people have been labeled as “Anti-national” to raise their voices for their rights. From the attitudes of the Bangladesh government, it can be assumed that it has set some specific rules and criteria for nationalism where the liberation war had a crucial role. People, who can’t associate themselves with such criteria, are simply vilified as anti-nationals and ‘Rajakar’, a popular word denoting ‘Pro-Pakistani’. In Academia, these types of thinking are considered as ‘Binary Division’ where each idea can only be understood in terms of the opposition of this term(Media Studies, 2022). No middle ground is saved for the other people, things, or thoughts. Students of the quota reform movements were also prey to such a system of thought.
Being stereotyped in this harsh way, students decided to raise their voices against such metanarratives where the existence of general people is not recognized. For this reason, they utilized the specific word ‘Rajakar’ as a metaphor to express their grievance, agony, and reluctance to be labeled as Anti-nationals. As expected, courageous female students of Dhaka University played a pivotal role in this protest. Nevertheless, the government didn’t recognize its responsibility. Rather, it misinterpreted the situation to spoil the validation of the student movement.
The story doesn’t end here. The next day showed some horrendous attacks of the Student League on university student movements across Bangladesh. Unfortunately, the female students, who spontaneously participated in this movement, were one of the main targets of these attacks. However, these attacks didn’t break the courage of the students. They started resisting such heinous attempts. On 16 July, students from colleges and universities also joined their movement. However, the police and the student league didn’t stop attacking on these students. Due to their continuous attacks, six were killed and hundreds were injured. The police didn’t even hesitate to shoot a male student who decided to stand courageously in front of them! After all these scenarios, educational institutions are announced to be closed. But can these things be successful in spoiling the movement? I don’t think so. While I am writing this piece, I am informed that my courageous sisters of Dhaka University, who can legitimately be called the Tigress of Dhaka University have already ousted the female leaders of the Student League from their halls, who wanted to control them.
Now, what messages do we get from this movement? The spontaneous participation of female students and their ability to take control of harsh situations was really commendable, which indicates that women can be great changemakers in this nation by utilizing their ‘agency’. On the other hand, the movement also indicates that our state is becoming intolerant increasingly of people who raise their voices for their rights. I strongly believe that the main aim of feminism is to create a humanistic and inclusive society where discrimination can hardly be found. Can it be possible in this environment? Who will answer this question?
Reference:
MediaStudies. (2022, February 12). Binary Opposition | Definition and Examples from the Media. Media Studies. https://media-studies.com/binary-opposition/
Biography:
Aditi Sharif is a Social Researcher, currently researching Gender Diversity, Historiography, Feminist Discourse and Methodology, Heritage, and Migration. She is also a volunteer writer in Women Chapter English.