Recently an incident took place in Bahria College, Islamabad where a biology teacher Sadat Bashir harassed more than 80 female students appearing in their intermediate exams.
Sadat Bashir, is a biology professor at Islamabad Model College for Boys, Sector H-9, was sent by the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) to invigilate the exam ongoing for three days in girls college.
The students accused Bashir of inappropriately touching and passing sleazy remarks at them during their Biology practical exam. One of the students who was harassed by him, shared her story on Facebook which went viral soon after she posted.
Here is what she wrote:
My biology practical was held on 24th May 2018, I was in the first batch of the bio practical. I came to school at 8.00 a.m sharp that day because I wanted to get my practical notebook checked by my teacher. Everybody warned me beforehand that the examiner is very strict.
What was even more shocking was that he wasn’t allowing our teacher to be present inside the lab during our practical but our teacher insisted on being there since she couldn’t just leave the female students alone with him. She got permission from the principal and was finally allowed in.
I don’t even have the words to describe the events that took place next but I will try. Our examiner Sadat Bashir, was a perverted asshole who groped almost 80 students and passed sleazy comments.
He groped me twice, once when I went for the model recognition and he touched my butt and second when I was making the slides. He came behind me and traced my bra strap all the while pretending he was just examining my slide.
Thirdly when I was doing my frog dissection he came up to me and asked what kind of a frog it was. I got extremely nervous and told him it was a male frog to which he very inappropriately replied “It’s a female frog can’t you see the ovaries, you have them inside you too!”
All of this made me extremely uncomfortable and I had no idea what to do. None of us said anything to him because he kept threatening to deduct our marks.
Almost all the girls of the first batch became a victim of that paedophile. The girls of the second batch were warned by their friends so they were obviously even more careful but still some of them experienced the same harassment.
I am still completely shook that we had to go through this. Approximately 80 girls were sexually harassed that day and our teacher told us to keep quite because she didn’t want us to lose marks!
Sadat Bashir scarred us for life and there’s nothing we can do about it. Women face sexual harassment on a daily basis today and are blamed for it because of the way they dress or walk or talk. But let me tell you something we were in our uniforms, performing our practical! So no it’s not the dressing or any other factor the only person to blame is that guy and his sick mentality!
#TimesUp #metoo
Soon after her post, more than 18 students came forward with some what same statement about him. Social media is fully supporting these girls and are asking for justice. Celebrities like Mahira Khan, Meesha Shafi, Mawra Hocane have sent their support and want this culprit to be given a lesson for life.
Name and shame this man!! Shame on #SadatBashir!! Make an example out of him. May justice be served to all these brave girls and God knows how many before them. https://t.co/SRyX41770Z
— Mahira Khan (@TheMahiraKhan) May 29, 2018
Punish Sadat Bashir. Period. #BahriaCollegeCase I’ve spoken to relevant authorities at Bahria college, action has been taken already. Looking forward to a severe punishment #TimesUp RT for humiliating him socially too.
— MAWRA HOCANE (@MawraHocane) May 29, 2018
My heart is broken, what happened to childhood ? I’ve studied from the same school & we used to be so safe. #BahriaCollegeIslamabad must take action against #SadatBashir #Timesup https://t.co/Mz55cevYbm
P.s Thankyou @itsmeeshashafi ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/vJ0tDkUgBi— MAWRA HOCANE (@MawraHocane) May 29, 2018
All strength and power to this brave sister for sharing her disgusting and alarming experience. #BahriaCollege kindly take immediate action. We are all watching and we are all waiting! #TimesUp https://t.co/lMdAVm5Csz
— MEESHA SHAFI (@itsmeeshashafi) May 29, 2018
Here is the picture of Sadat Bashir.
In the meantime, the college authorities have stated that they have received the complain and are looking into this matter with proper investigation against Sadat Bashir. However, Sadat has denied the allegations, saying he had been mentally tortured and even threatened since the issue had gone viral.
“I might have bumped into someone in the lab where many students were performing dissection but that does not mean it was deliberate or I wanted to harass students”.
He further stated that, “I’m a struggling teacher with 12 years of experience and my family is in shock after this malicious campaign against me.”
