In yet another glaring display of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir’s deeply misogynistic, regressive, and anti-women mindset, a senior district leader has been relieved from all posts for publicly insulting Dhaka University Central Studentsโ Union (DUCSU) as a “drug den and brothel.”
The remarks, dripping with patriarchal contempt and moral policing, have sparked nationwide outrage, forcing the party to distance itself in a desperate bid to salvage its tattered image.
Md. Shamim Ahsan, Assistant Secretary of Barguna district Jamaat-e-Islami, made the derogatory comments during an election rally in Patharghata on Saturday while campaigning for Jamaat candidate Sultan Ahmed in the Barguna-2 constituency.
He declared:ย “We are seeing that after the DUCSU election, the DUCSU, which used to be a den of drugs and a brothel, has been transformed by Islami Chhatra Shibir. Therefore, Jamaat-e-Islami is capable of eradicating all forms of injustice, extortion, and corruption from Bangladesh.”
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The vile statement, equating female students and campus life with immorality, quickly went viral on social media, triggering widespread condemnation from students, alumni, women’s rights groups, and civil society. It laid bare the Islamist alliance’s longstanding obsession with controlling women’s bodies, freedoms, and spacesโhallmarks of their extremist ideology that views educated women and co-educational environments as threats to their puritanical vision.
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In response to the backlash, Jamaat’s Barguna district unit Amir, Maulana Mohibullah Harun, issued a notification on Monday suspending Shamim Ahsan from all organisational responsibilities and placing his membership (rukon) on hold. The notice stated that the comments had “hurt the sentiments of current and former DU students and various classes of people across the country,” damaged the party’s image, and contradicted its “principles and ideals.”
Maulana Harun confirmed to the media that Ahsan’s language was “incompatible with Jamaat-e-Islami’s policies and ideals.” Yet the suspension rings hollow: it is a damage-control tactic, not a rejection of the underlying anti-women ideology that permeates Jamaat-Shibir’s worldview.
A Pattern Of Misogyny And Moral Policing
This incident is no isolated slip. Jamaat and Shibir have a long, sordid history of moral policing on campuses and in societyโharassing female students, enforcing dress codes, disrupting cultural events, and labelling progressive spaces as “immoral” or “Western-influenced.” Their rhetoric routinely reduces women to objects of shame, portraying co-education, student activism, and women’s participation in public life as gateways to “vice” and “degeneration.”
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By calling DUCSU a “brothel,” Shamim Ahsan did not merely insult an institutionโhe insulted generations of women students who have fought for education, equality, and dignity against precisely this kind of patriarchal bigotry. The remark reflects the deep-seated misogyny of an ideology that sees women’s autonomy as a moral threat to be suppressed.
Public Fury And Legal Repercussions
DU authorities condemned the statement, with the campus witnessing protests and demands for accountability. Social media erupted with outrage from alumni and students, many pointing out that such slurs are part of Jamaat-Shibir’s playbook to discredit secular, progressive spaces.
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Adding to the fallout, a complaint was filed against Shamim Ahsan with the district Returning Officer on Monday, accusing him of violating the election code of conduct through inflammatory and defamatory remarks during campaigning.
A Party That Cannot Hide Its True Face
The suspension of Shamim Ahsan is nothing more than cosmetic damage control. Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir remain steeped in an ideology that promotes moral policing, restricts women’s freedoms, and demonises modern education and coexistence. Their vision for Bangladesh is one of enforced conservatism where women are policed, campuses sanitised of “immorality,” and dissent crushed under the guise of “Islamic values.”
This episode serves as a stark reminder: Jamaat-Shibir’s anti-women mindset is not a bugโit is the core feature. The party may suspend one mouthpiece today, but the toxic ideology that produced such vile rhetoric continues to fester. Bangladesh must remain vigilant against forces that seek to drag society backwards under the banner of religion, especially as they attempt to re-enter the political mainstream through elections.
The people of Bangladeshโparticularly its women and youthโhave repeatedly rejected this regressive worldview. They will continue to do so, ensuring that moral policing and misogyny have no place in a forward-looking secularist nation.
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