UNB :
Rabindra University authorities suspended teacher Farhana Yeasmin Baten from academic and administrative activities for three academic years for trimming the hair of its 14 students.
An office order on the final decision of the university authorities, signed by registrar Sohrab Hossain, was hanged on the notice board on Sunday.
According to the office order, Farhana, an associate professor of Cultural Heritage and Bangladesh Studies Department, has been instructed to refrain from all academic and administrative activities including taking classes and exams, until the end of the academic activities of 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years.
Regarding the decision, students, who have been
demanding termination of the teacher, said that it would have been better if such a decision had been taken by the Academic Council at the beginning of the movement.
However, the university authorities took such a decision in favor of accused teacher Farhana Yeasmin, the students alleged.
Earlier on September 26, Farhana Yeasmin Baten, also the chair of the Cultural Heritage and Bangladesh Studies Department, was charged with forcibly cutting the hair of 16 students.
The following day, Nazmul Hasan Tuhin, a student, tried to take his own life by consuming sleeping pills, prompting the university students to burst into protests. They also boycotted all the exams and classes on September 28. Amid the protests, Farhana relinquished her three administrative positions on the same day.
Later, a five-member probe body was formed to investigate the incident. The university finally suspended Farhana on September 30.
On October 24, Shamim Hossain, a third-year student of Cultural Heritage and Bangladesh Studies, reportedly attempted to kill himself by swallowing poison demanding termination of Farhana.
Two days later, a probe committee formed by Rabindra University recommended taking action against its teacher Farhana for trimming the hair of its 14 students saying that it has found the ‘proof of her offence’.
