DU Dormitories: Committee for withdrawing discriminatory rule for girls

The Dhaka University provost standing committee has recommended the withdrawal of the rule that allows the cancellation of hall seats for female married and pregnant students.

The recommendation came at a meeting yesterday evening, in the wake of protests that started earlier this month.

The standing committee, however, said students should stay with their families in the time of pregnancy for the betterment of their and their children's health.

The Standing Committee Member-Secretary and DU Proctor Prof AKM Golam Rabbani and two provosts confirmed the recommendation.

Rabbani said it will be placed at the next syndicate meeting according to procedures.

Earlier in the day, a Supreme Court lawyer served a legal notice on the DU authorities, directing them to cancel in three working days the existing restriction on pregnant and married students over staying at residential halls.

Mohammad Shishir Manir, also a former law student of DU, sent the legal notice to the vice chancellor, registrar and proctor of the university and also to the provosts of Shamsunnahar, Kuwait-Maitree and Sufia Kamal halls, saying that appropriate legal action will be taken against them if they don't scrap the restriction in three working days.

In the notice, the lawyer said married and pregnant students will keep being deprived from obtaining higher education and enjoying the facilities of residential halls if the restriction remains in force.

The students are being seriously impacted due to the discriminatory provision, Shishir said.

The debate over the restriction ensued earlier this month when the authority of Shamsun Nahar Hall, one of the five female dormitories of the university, cancelled the seat of a married student. Days later, another such incident occurred at the Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall, after which students began protesting.

A group of female students placed a memorandum on December 13 to the vice chancellor to change the rule, terming it discriminatory.