DHAKA: Hundreds of students from a top Bangladesh university demanded the reinstatement on Tuesday of a lecturer sacked for publicly condemning the inclusion of transgender content in the national school curriculum.

Transgender women have been the beneficiaries of growing legal recognition in Bangladesh over the past decade where they are officially recognised as a third gender.

A curriculum overhaul last year included the recognition of transgender women in school textbooks, prompting a backlash from Islamists in the Muslim-majority nation.

Lecturer Asif Mahtab Utsha was fired from Brac University after tearing pages from one such book during a speech condemning the content last week. Up to 300 people picketed the university, one of the capital Dhaka’s leading education institutions, for several hours on Tuesday.

“If the university authorities fired our teacher for his recent remarks on the LGBTQ issue, then they must reinstate him,” one protester said. Others shouted slogans condemning transgender recognition and carried placards with messages including “Say No To Rainbow Terrorism”.

The university said in a statement that it was “committed to promoting tolerance and inclusivity.”

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2024