‘Don’t you have pyjamas?’: Teenager attacked for wearing shorts in Dhaka

A school football tournament is scheduled to take place. For several days, schoolboys have been practising at a nearby field wearing jerseys and shorts (half-pants), under the supervision of a teacher from their school. They are students of an English-medium school in the capital’s Lalmatia area. Some of them also attend classes at a coaching centre located nearby. As time is limited, after practice they often go straight to the coaching centre still wearing their football kits.

Last Wednesday, a 16-year-old boy did the same—heading to coaching classes with his friends immediately after practice. At around 7:30 pm, shortly after leaving the coaching centre and walking a short distance, someone suddenly slapped him hard on the back of the head. Startled, the teenager turned around to see two unfamiliar young men, aged around 22 to 23. They became aggressive, with one of them asking, “Why are you wearing shorts? Don’t you have pyjamas at home?”

The boy explained that he had come straight from football practice to attend his class. Instantly, the two youths began verbally abusing him and launched an attack.

A relative of the teenager later shared the incident in a Facebook post. When contacted, the boy’s mother recounted the entire episode to Prothom Alo. She previously worked as a journalist, while her husband is a businessman. They have three children—two daughters and one son—the boy being the second. He is a ninth grader at the English-medium school and the family lives in Dhanmondi.

The boy’s mother said it was deeply painful for her to accept that her son was attacked simply for wearing shorts. Her son has also been traumatised by the incident.

Describing the events, she said that half-yearly examinations had taken place at the school last December, resulting in some coaching classes being missed by her son and a few other students. Those classes were subsequently being covered. The school, coaching centre and football field are all located within the same alley. On the day of the incident, her son left home at around 2:45 pm after lunch. Football practice ran from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, followed by coaching classes from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. The attack occurred just as he was about to get into a vehicle after finishing his coaching class.

The boy’s mother said that when her son was asked, “Why are you wearing shorts?”, he replied, “Uncle, I’ve just come from playing football and went straight to coaching.” At that point, the young men became enraged. “Why are you wearing shorts in a public place? Don’t you know you’re not allowed to wear shorts in public?” one of them shouted. Saying this, one of the attackers grabbed the boy’s jersey by the collar and yanked it so forcefully that marks were left on his neck and the front of the jersey was pulled out of shape.

When the other man attempted to strike him, the boy punched back in self-defence and ran away. The attackers chased him for a short distance, but when several more boys emerged from the coaching centre, the two men fled in the opposite direction.

The boy immediately called his father. At that moment, his father was returning home from work on a ride-sharing motorcycle and was near Lalmatia. Within a minute, he reached the scene and rode in the direction in which the attackers had fled, but they had already escaped.

Expressing his anger, the boy’s father said that his family are long-standing residents of Dhanmondi—it is where he was born and raised. Yet in all these years, he had never witnessed anyone being attacked in the area simply for wearing shorts.

The boy’s mother said she has been deeply distressed by the incident. She keeps asking herself repeatedly, “What kind of country are we living in?” Must parents now live in constant anxiety every time they send their children outside?

She said she is also frightened. Since then, she has been putting a pair of pyjamas in her son’s bag whenever he goes to football practice. Her son has asked his father, “Dad, is wearing shorts a crime?”

Over the past year and a half, alongside attacks on women over their clothing, public debate has also been sparked by objections raised by a group over the wearing of shorts by canteen staff at Dhaka University halls.

Speaking about this, professor Monirul Islam Khan of the Department of Sociology at Dhaka University told Prothom Alo that the country is currently witnessing a cultural shift.

“Those who are now dominant and powerful groups are attempting to impose their preferences through force. Under various pretexts, they are depriving others of their freedom and bullying people to enforce their own choices,” he said.

“They fail to grasp that someone wearing shorts is not forcing anyone else who wears pyjamas to start wearing shorts,” he added.

Professor Monirul Khan warned that such situations create a democratic crisis.

“In a society, people with differing views coexist with mutual solidarity. When that practice disappears, it becomes harmful to society. The responsibility for overcoming this situation lies with both the government and the people. The government cannot remain silent in the face of such incidents; it must take a firm stand,” he stated.