Home Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, a retired lieutenant general, came under fire on Monday for his ‘provocative’ comments regarding two young women who became victims of mob justice for smoking at Lalmatia in the capital.
Several women’s rights activists condemned the home adviser for focusing on the prohibition of smoking in public areas while remaining silent about the violent attack on the women by a group of locals. They termed his statement ‘provocative’.
The two university students faced the attack when they were smoking at a tea stall near NHA Tower building in the area on Saturday evening.
Public outcries began when the home affairs adviser on Sunday told reporters responding to a query about the attack that he heard that the incident occurred because the two women were smoking in public place.
‘Smoking in public places is prohibited for both men and women. It’s an offence for both men and women to smoke in public places and everyone should adhere to it. I urge everyone not to smoke in public place,’ he stated, while remaining silent about the mob attack on the women.
Rights activists said that the tobacco control law was frequently violated everywhere and the home adviser was hardly seen to take any action against it. Still, he accused the two women of smoking in public place while maintaining silence on the attack.
Supreme Court lawyer Sara Hossain said that the home adviser should have talked about the attack and taken action against those who attacked the two women.
‘We don’t see such incidents when it comes to men smoking in public places despite smoking being prohibited in public places for both men and women,’ she said, adding that no one had the right to forcefully impose their morals on others by violating law.
Condemning the attack on the two women, Nijera Kori coordinator Khushi Kabir said that moral policing towards women should be stopped and the government must come forward to take immediate action against the perpetrators who launched both physical and verbal assaults on them in the Lalmatia incident.
‘The way the home adviser ignored the heinous attack on the two women and took the incident lightly was dishonouring,’ she said.
The home adviser’s taking the matter lightly would encourage and support those who create mobs and do moral policing against women, she noted.
According to a Facebook account posted on Sunday by one of the survivors’ friend, initially a gang of over a dozen men surrounded the two women, slapped and punched them indiscriminately.
An elderly man at first allegedly shouted expletives at the women and at one point of the verbal altercation, one of the women threw her tea cup at him.
The man then grabbed her hair and began to strike her, eyewitnesses said.
Later on, a mob over around 50 men gathered and continued assaulting them.
Dhaka University sociology department professor Samina Lutfa said that the two female students could be fined Tk 300 for smoking in public place as per the tobacco control law but no one had the right to attack them and harass them by creating a mob.
‘The mob led by a man named Rinku assaulted the women physically and verbally which were criminal offences. The home adviser could have instructed law enforcers to take action against those who attacked them but he decided to totally ignore that part,’ she said.
Samina termed the home adviser’s comment on the issue was populist and patriarchal, saying that it was nothing to do with law and its execution.
Expressing concern over the incident, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad president Fouzia Moslem told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that smoking in public places was prohibited irrespective of gender. ‘Why would people have to do moral policing only on women?’ she asked.
The government should identify the places where smoking is prohibited and take action accordingly, she said, adding that it should take strict action against harassment and violence against women.
Member of National Women Lawyers’ Association Dilruba Sharmin said that the adviser seemed to justify the attack as he started his comment with the reason of the incident and did not even condemn the attack.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner for Tejgaon division Md Ibne Mizan told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Sunday that the police arrived after news of the scuffle reached them at about 6:30pm on Saturday.
‘Police went to the scene and rescued the students and took them to the Mohammadpur police station. Later, the matter was resolved after talking to both parties and the two students were released in the custody of their families at about 11:00pm on the day,’ added the police official.
The incident occurred when an elderly resident allegedly asked the two women, sitting on chairs at a tea stall at Lalmatia, to get up from there which they refused to comply with.
The elderly man then ordered the tea stall owner to remove all the chairs. Later, a mob gathered at the scene and attacked the two students.