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Bangladeshi Teen Reported Sexual Harassment Against Teacher, Got Burnt To Death At School

bySwati Dubey
19th April 2019
2 minute read

On one hand, women around the world are mustering up the courage to call out the sexual harassers through #MeToo movement. On the other, a 19-year-old girl was set ablaze by a group of people for reporting sexual harassment against her school teacher in Bangladesh.

Nusrat Jahan Rafi was called to the head teacher’s office at her Islamic school i.e a Madarsa where the teacher touched her inappropriately. The girl alleged that she ran out of the cabin before things escalated. Nusrat gathered the courage and reported the crime to a nearby police station where the police officer recorded her ordeal on his phone in a video.

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In the video, which later on went viral on social media, Nusrat reportedly can be seen devasted, trying to hide her face. The police officer is heard asking her to remove her hand as it is ‘a no big deal’ while the girl recounts her encounter with the head teacher.

A couple of weeks later, a fellow female student told Nusrat that a friend of her was been beaten up by someone on the roof of the school. She rushed to the roof where a group of Burkha clad people gathered around her and asked her to withdraw the complaint against the headteacher. As Nusrat denied to do so, they threw kerosene on her and set her on fire.

Nusrat was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors found 80% burns on her body and referred her to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment. She succumbed to her burns on April 10.

She had, however, recorded a statement on her brother’s phone before her death and identified some of her attackers. “The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime till my last breath,” she said, reports Independent.

“I tried to take my sister to school and tried to enter the premises, but I was stopped and wasn’t allowed to enter,” recalls Nusrat’s brother, Mahmudul Hasan Noman while talking to BBC. “If I hadn’t been stopped, something like this wouldn’t have happened to my sister,” he said.

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Nusrat’s death has triggered protest and candle marches in Bangladesh.

People from all over the world have condemned the horrendous incident on social media.

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Nusrat Jahan Rafi, an 18-year-old student studying at an Islamic school, in Feni, Bangladesh, went to the police on March 27 to file a report against her principal for allegedly sexually harassing her. Eleven days later, she went to school to take her exams but was tricked into going to the rooftop of a school building, where at least four unidentified people set her on fire after she refused to listen to their demands for her to withdraw her complaint against the principal. For the full story, click the link in bio 👆 (📷: Facebook, Getty, 📝: @kassy) – #justicefornusrat #woman #women #girl #girls #sexualharassment #gender #genderviolence #violence #femicide #violenceagainstwomen #feminism #equality #equalrights #womensrights #islam #muslim #hijab #hijabi #madrasa #metoo #timesup #consent #justice #feni #bangladesh #bangladeshi

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The head teacher was arrested by the police soon. Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina has met and given condolences to Nusrat’s family. She assured that everybody involved in the gruesome act will be brought to justice soon.

Women activists, celebrities, and people from all walks of life around the world are encouraging women to raise their voice against violence and sexual harassment. At such a crucial time, an incident like this makes us women give a second thought on if we should really report such crimes. This is precisely why the perpetrators must be brought to justice. After all, reporting harassment shouldn’t be at the cost of our own lives!

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