‘We board metro wearing shorts’ programme in protest against harassment for wearing shorts on metro rail

Shaon Ahmed has called for a programme of boarding the metro rail wearing shorts and T-shirt in protest against the allegation of harassment of an athlete and running coach while moving on the metro rail wearing half-pant. He has given the call for this programme by opening an event named ‘We board metro wearing shorts’ on Facebook. Farmgate metro rail station of the capital has been fixed as the venue of the programme.

About 1,600 people have responded to the event till 8:30pm on Monday (September 28). Among them about 1,400 have expressed interest in taking part in the programme. Call has been given from the organisers’ side to runners, athletes, cyclists, those going to gym and general citizens to join the programme in normal sports dress.

According to the description of the event, running coach Sajjad Hossen went to Farmgate metro rail station wearing T-shirt and shorts after finishing training on Sunday (September 27) morning. He alleged that a police member stopped him there and interrogated him considering his dress ‘indecent’. Sajjad claimed that he had to wait there for about 40 minutes for this reason.

Later Sajjad published a video on his Facebook account about the incident. In the video he is seen talking with a police member about the dress. There he asked whether there is any written provision on the metro rail about which type of dress is decent or indecent. In reply that police member said looking after the matter is his responsibility.

Meanwhile a concerned higher officer has informed that there is no specific dress code for movement of passengers on the metro rail. As a result the allegation of passenger harassment centering on wearing shorts or sports dress has given birth to discussion on social media.

The organisers of the programme have informed that the purpose of their this initiative is not to create any kind of disorder. Rather protest against harassment, demand for clarifying the dress-related rules and giving the message of respectful behaviour with passengers are the aims of the programme. It has also been mentioned in the description of the event that if any specific dress is prohibited there should be clear and written provision of that. The slogan of the programme has been kept—‘The problem is not in the shorts, the problem is in the harassment!’

Sajjad Hossen has been working as a trainer of marathon and ultramarathon for about a decade. Besides running regularly himself he also provides running training at various parks of Dhaka. The declaration of this protest programme on social media has come centering on the incident that happened with him.