Former Chhatra League leader A R Tahseen Jahan rejects DU Dean’s Award

Former Bangladesh Chhatra League leader A R Tahseen Jahan, who topped the University of Dhaka’s Development Studies Department in her undergraduate studies, has rejected the university’s Dean’s Award, citing alleged mob harassment and disruption to her education over her political identity.

She announced the decision in a post on her verified Facebook account on Monday (September 14). Tahseen served as Innovation Secretary and Sub-Consultant of the central executive committee of the now-banned Bangladesh Chhatra League. She secured first place in her department with a CGPA of 3.95 out of 4.

The Dean’s Award is given to students who achieve the highest academic results in their respective departments at the undergraduate level.

In her post, Tahseen said she had looked forward to receiving the award since the beginning of her four-year undergraduate studies.

“Since the very first day of my Dhaka University life, I’ve waited for this day. I spent countless nights giving more than 100% effort throughout the four long years of my bachelor’s degree to achieve this prestigious award. But I refused to accept the award.”

Explaining her decision, she alleged that the university administration had failed to protect the educational rights of students whose academic lives were affected because of their political identities.

Tahseen alleged that she was attacked and threatened by mobs in 2024 because of her political identity, despite not being involved in violence. She claimed she was prevented from appearing in her final viva and submitting her undergraduate thesis and later stayed away from campus because of concerns over her safety.

She said some teachers helped her complete her degree by allowing her to take her final viva online.

“Because of some teachers who still had the ethical conscience to stand up for my educational rights, I was eventually able to sit for my final viva online while protecting myself from physical attacks.”

Tahseen also claimed that more than 10,000 students at Dhaka University and other public universities had been unable to continue their education because of their political identities.

“While I was lucky enough to graduate and work on rebuilding myself here at Harvard despite my educational rights being hijacked at DU, more than 10,000 students like me at the University of Dhaka and other public universities could not.”

She further alleged that university administrations had remained silent in response to attacks by what she described as “fundamentalist mobs.”

Referring to the deaths of Tofazzal, Masud, Shamim and others, Tahseen criticised public university administrations for what she described as a failure to take meaningful steps to protect students. She also questioned why students whose education had been disrupted had not returned to classrooms following the change of government.

“If democracy has been restored after the fall of the government, then why have these thousands of students still not been able to return to class? What’s the fucking excuse now?”

Tahseen said she respected the teachers who had helped her complete her degree and acknowledged their contribution to her academic achievement.

However, she said she could not accept an award from an institution whose administration she believes failed to protect students.

“With all due respect to my faculty, I cannot celebrate an award from an institution or administration that I believe has played a role in ruining the lives of thousands of students.”

She said her decision was intended to stand in solidarity with students whose education and future, according to her, had been affected because of their political identities. Tahseen was a student of the 2019-20 academic session in the Development Studies Department at Dhaka University. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University.