In the months after Bangladesh’s interim government came to power in August 2024, women across the country found themselves targeted for what they wore, and what they didn’t. Videos shared on social media show angry men wielding sticks and forcing women to perform humiliating punishments on the Cox’s Bazar beach, schoolgirls had their hair cut off because their hijab was not on, and even a former war‑crimes prosecutor was assaulted in her own home and told she should be wearing a hijab. These incidents reveal a chilling pattern: when Islamist hard‑liners seek to impose control, women and girls in Bangladesh are the first to bear the brunt.
Haircut as punishment
On 29 February 2024 parents in Munshiganj were shocked when their daughters returned from Syedpur Abdur Rahman School & College. Biology teacher Runia Sarker had lined up seventh‑grade girls and cut off their hair as punishment for not wearing a hijab. One student told reporters she had only one hijab and had washed it that day; despite pleading with her teacher, her hair was still cut. Authorities suspended the teacher after an investigation. Religious scholar Mufti Lutfur Rahman said that although Islam encourages modest dress, “forcing someone to comply, and cutting a girl’s hair has no place in religion”, while rights activist Khushi Kabir called the practice unconstitutional. A local newspaper, Dhaka Tribune, reported that a three‑member committee was formed and the teacher faces legal action.
Forcing Hindu schoolgirls to veil
At Rangpur’s Moslem Uddin Girls’ High School, two teachers crossed another line. In September 2024 a video went viral showing Hindu students protesting after being instructed to wear the hijab. The district administration confirmed that headmaster Mofizur Rahman and Islamic studies teacher Mostafizar Rahman had issued that order; both were suspended and issued show‑cause notices. Officials said they would probe allegations that the teachers also made disparaging remarks about the Bhagavad Gita. The incident was widely covered by Bangladeshi media; for example, The Daily Star noted that the action was taken after students staged a protest.
Violence on a beach and on camera
The most disturbing images came from Cox’s Bazar in September 2024. In one clip, a man later identified as Faruk Islam, an activist associated with Jamaat‑e‑Islami’s student wing, corners a woman and forces her to do “kan‑dhore uth‑bos” (ear‑holding squats) while he brandishes a stick. In other videos he and his associates surround women sitting on beach chairs and harass them; they even follow a terrified woman into a police post, demanding her phone and forcing her to beg for forgiveness. The Bangla daily Ittefaq reported that bystanders counted aloud as the woman performed sit‑ups and that some cheered the abuse. Police later detained Faruk, but activists warned that moral policing is spreading.
Another clip shows men with sticks harassing a transgender person and chasing off women at night on the beach, calling them prostitutes. Activists interviewed by Ittefaq said these vigilantes see themselves as enforcers of “Sharia” law and that such mob justice threatens both women’s safety and the tourism industry. A related article in Dhaka Tribune summarised seven videos showing the same group harassing women; in one, the men force a woman to do ear‑holding squats, while in another they surround a woman on a beach chair and drive her away.
Spat on for not wearing a scarf
The climate of intimidation is not confined to rural areas. In October 2024 filmmaker Aparajita Sangita was waiting in her car at a Dhaka traffic signal when an elderly man approached her window and berated her for not wearing a scarf. She rolled up the window and recorded him on her phone; in response, he spat on her window. Sangita told The Daily Star that she was shaken not just by the abuse but by the fear that others would blame her instead of the aggressor. The paper highlighted other incidents: a woman berated during a job interview for not wearing a burqa and another harassed for wearing a bindi.
Attack on a war‑crimes prosecutor
The violence reached a frightening new level on 7 August 2024 when Barrister Tureen Afroz, a former prosecutor at the International Crimes Tribunal, was assaulted in her Uttara home. According to her account published in Khaborer Kagoj, several men stormed her house, attacked her with a sharp object and burned her legs with cigarettes, cut off some of her hair and repeatedly asked why she wasn’t wearing a hijab. Afroz later said she endured the torture to protect her teenage daughter and vowed not to flee Bangladesh. The assailants also vandalised her daughter’s house in Nilphamari. The assault shows how hijab policing can intersect with political violence: Afroz was targeted for her role in war‑crimes trials, yet the attackers framed their intimidation around her clothing choices.
A society under siege
These incidents are not isolated. Women’s rights activists say harassment and violence have increased since ultraconservative groups gained influence after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government. The Daily Star reports that women have been harassed on buses, in markets and in tourist areas; some have been stalked and physically attacked. Activist Khushi Kabir warns that misogyny has “shifted from social media to the streets”. At Dhaka University, the newly elected vice‑president of the student body, from an Islamist‑aligned panel, promised in an interview with Jago News that women wearing hijab and those not wearing it would enjoy equal rights and that anyone who harasses women will face strict action. Yet such assurances offer little comfort when vigilantes with sticks roam beaches and teachers feel empowered to cut a girl’s hair.
“This is a Muslim country, you have to wear Hijab” Dhaka, Bangladesh
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Why women fall first
Why are women the first targets of Islamist misogyny? In each case above, the perpetrators invoked religion and “modesty” to justify punishing women. Cutting a girl’s hair, forcing a Hindu student to veil, or spitting at a woman for not wearing a scarf are all attempts to control female bodies. Rights activist Khushi Kabir explains that adding hijab to school uniforms, and punishing girls who don’t wear it, violates Bangladesh’s constitution. Mufti Lutfur Rahman emphasises that Islam does not sanction coercion. Yet vigilantes and some educators treat the hijab as a test of loyalty, turning women into symbols of political or religious identity.
The ubiquity of smartphones has made these abuses impossible to ignore. Videos of Cox’s Bazar and other incidents circulated widely on Facebook and X, prompting police action. But they also expose the extent of moral policing. As Bangladesh navigates a volatile political transition, the plight of women and girls serves as an early warning: when extremist ideologies gain a foothold, they often begin by policing women’s bodies. Protecting women’s freedom to choose, whether to wear a hijab or not, is therefore a litmus test for the country’s commitment to pluralism and the rule of law.
