The long-awaited Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) election was held on September 9, where the student alliance backed by Islami Chhatra Shibir won a sweeping victory.

During the announcement, as Sabikun Nahar Tamanna—a candidate in Shibir's panel—was declared elected to the central executive committee of DUCSU, several hundred students in the hall broke into chants: “Hijab, hijab.”

The video spread rapidly on social media, drawing mixed reactions. With little context, some interpreted it positively, others negatively.

Indian media outlets, however, portrayed the scene in a way that diverged sharply from reality. Several news channels and websites claimed the chants signaled an effort by Shibir to make the hijab compulsory on campus.

India TV reported in Hindi under the headline, “Now Hijab Demands Rise at Dhaka University,” alleging that “after Sheikh Hasina’s fall, extremism is spreading in Bangladesh, and students at Dhaka University are now demanding mandatory hijab in classrooms.”

The video version of the report is here.

ইন্ডিয়া টিভি বিভ্রান্তিকর রিপোর্ট

Kolkata-based The News Bangla ran a story titled, “Movement at Dhaka University to Cover Women in Hijab and Burqa.”

The website India Blooms similarly portrayed the chants as proof of “the rise of extremists in Bangladesh and a demand to impose hijab on all students.” (archived here). 

The narrative was amplified further on X (formerly Twitter). A handle named Hindu Voice called the chants a “direct threat to Hindu students,” a post that drew 1.5 million views and thousands of shares.

Other Hindu nationalist accounts, including Kreately.in, Treeni, Megh Updates, Frontalforce, Sharmishta Sharma, and HinduPost, repeated the same claim. 

But in reality, the chant was rooted in a very different story. On August 26, the first day of the election campaign, unidentified vandals tore down posters of the Shibir-backed panel at the Faculty of Fine Arts on the DU campus.

A poster of candidate Tamanna wearing a hijab was defaced, with horns drawn on her head. The altered image circulated online and sparked outrage, with many condemning it as an act of “hijabophobia.” 

When Tamanna was elected on September 10, supporters in the DU Senate hall viewed her victory as a rebuke of that defacement. The chants of “Hijab, hijab” were, in their eyes, a celebration of resistance to harassment rather than a demand for compulsory dress codes.

Newly elected General Secretary S. M. Forhad told reporters: “The slogan was against hijabophobia. It was a reaction to the insult where her picture was vandalized in the Fine Arts faculty, with horns drawn on her hijab.”

He added, “If a woman chooses to wear hijab on this campus, you cannot secretly deface her picture or harass her in the department. These things should not be allowed.”