‘Sorry, sir’ protest floods social media over public shaming of Bangladesh schoolteacher

An unprecedented wave of protests titled ‘Sorry, sir’ is overwhelming Facebook, triggered by the public humiliation of a school’s headmaster in Narayanganj and escalated dramatically by his sacking.

Scores of Bangladeshis are making angry posts and changing profile pictures with photos of them holding ears captioned ‘Sorry, sir’ in a stunning show of solidarity with the teacher.

The popular outrage on social media with the catchphrase is trending after the senior teacher was being filmed doing sit-ups holding ears on the asking of the local MP.

Along with Facebook, the protests have also spread on microblogging site Twitter with #sorrysir, #iamsorrysir and #wearesorrysir hashtags.

Many socio-cultural organisations and political parties on Tuesday also condemned and protested against the incident, demanding punishment to those responsible for it.

A Facebook event titled ‘Protests for Sir and a photo’ was also opened on Monday. Many shared photos of themselves holding ears on that event’s wall.

Making someone do sit-ups while holding ears is a form of shaming and common punishment meted out to disobedient students in schools in this part of the world. Forcing an adult to do the same in public is considered humiliating.

Injured Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the headmaster at Bandar Upazila’s Piyar Sattar Latif High School, was rescued by police on Friday after he was assaulted by locals for allegedly making comments criticising religion.

MP AKM Salim Osman then made him to do sit-ups.

Apart from the protests and criticisms on the social media, many have demanded punishment to those involved in shaming of the 55-year-old teacher.

Narayanganj’s Superintendent of Police Khandker Mohid Uddin on Monday said the treatment meted out to the teacher was not a criminal offence and they ‘could not have done anything’.

But, Law Minister Anisul Huq on Tuesday said those responsible for humiliating Bhakta will be punished for taking ‘the law into their own hands’.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam has joined the growing condemnation of the incident in a post on his Facebook fan page.

“Honourable education minister has promised to take action after inquiry. I hope that will happen very soon,” he wrote.

Earlier in the day, the school also sacked Bhakta in a letter that cited ‘his absence from duty’.

“I was first humiliated and then have been removed from my job. I’ve been taking treatment at a hospital after the incident. The school authorities have taken that as my absence,” he told bdnews24.com.

The social media protests, registered among others by celebrities, teachers, students, and journalists, grew after the news of his firing spread.

Actor Iresh Zaker changed the profile picture on his fan page with a photo of him holding ears and doing sit-ups.

Expatriate journalist Fazlul Bari wrote on his Facebook wall, “Did evil MP Salim Osman just make the law minister a joke? The minister said the teacher’s persecutor Salim Osman will be tried, and Salim Osman has rather sacked the teacher in a slap on the law minister’s face!”

Online activist Ananya Azad wrote, “Criminals take on the role of teacher in that country where teachers are not respected.”

Blogger-writer Ibrahim Khalil Sobak’s Facebook post read, “Shyamal Kanti has been suspended. Now give him a visa and throw him out of the country. Then set the issue to rest. We’re tired.”

One Pradip Ghosh shared a photo of him holding ears and wrote, “Let’s seek forgiveness from the teacher by holding our ears. Protest on.”

Chittagong University’s anthropology teacher Rahman Nasir Uddin in a Facebook post said, “The public humiliation of the teacher has generated protests from general people to politicians, journalists and even ministers.

“Many are condemning those responsible for this and showing sympathy to the victim. This proves that people still respect the teachers and have a special place in their hearts for them. I too am feeling honoured as a teacher.”

He also said all teachers should always try to become worthy of the people’s respect.

Sharing a photo of him holding ears, one Amiya Dutta Bhowmik posted, “Sir, this way we want to share a bit of your insult.”

Singer Kafil Ahmed wrote, “Have we forgotten that Shyamal Kanti is a human being? More important than him being a teacher, Shyamal Kanti is certainly a human being. And such barbaric act with a human being cannot be tolerated.”