A video showing students chanting "Hijab, Hijab" inside a Dhaka University classroom in Bangladesh has gone viral on social media site X, with concerns and widespread debate being sparked online. The clip, originally uploaded by the account Hindu Voice_in, claimed that Muslim students were demanding that hijab be made mandatory for female students, suggesting it posed a threat to Hindu minority girls.
Hindu Voice_in wrote on X, “#Bangladesh This video is from Dhaka University. Muslim students have demanded to make ‘hijab’ mandatory for girls. Muslim students are raising slogans ‘hijab, hijab’ inside the University. This is a direct threat to the girls of the Hindu minority community.”
However, fact-checkers have clarified that the narrative circulating online is misleading. Shohanur Rahman, who identifies himself as a fact-checker at RumorScanner, explained on X that the chants were not a demand for mandatory hijab. Instead, they were a form of protest following the Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) elections.
According to Rahman, the slogan “Hijab, Hijab” was raised after candidate Sabikun Nahar Tamanna, who wears hijab and niqab, won a landslide victory as an executive member. During the election campaign, one of her photographs on campaign posters had been distorted in a hate-driven act targeting hijabi-niqabi girls. The chanting in school was in response to this episode, rejoicing at her victory and in protest against the disrespect that had been shown towards hijab and niqab-wearing students.
This background was lacking in the social media posts, which presented the video as a demand for forced hijab and threat to Hindu students.
