Dhaka, Feb 1 (.) The chief of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Shafiqur Rahman, has come under fire after he purportedly made a derogatory post on women, where he likened their open participation of women in public life to “prostitution.”
Shafiqur Rahman, the Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, in the since-then deleted post wrote: “When women are pushed out of the home in the name of modernity, they are exposed to exploitation, moral decay, and insecurity. It’s nothing but another form of prostitution. Social media vulgarity, workplace harassment, and commodification of women are not signs of progress—they are symptoms of moral collapse.”
Although the post was removed within minutes, screenshots spread rapidly across social media, triggering a flurry of intense backlash from political parties, rights groups and ordinary users.
Soon after the controversy erupted, Rahman claimed that his account had been “hacked,” and the post was a fabrication.
In a statement issued shortly after midnight, Jamaat’s central publicity department said several senior leaders’ social media accounts had been targeted in what it described as a coordinated cyberattack, briefly allowing unauthorised posts to be made.
The party said its cyber team regained control using internal security protocols and insisted no other accounts were compromised.
However, the hacking claim was met with widespread scepticism within both the political and social circles.
Jamaat provided no technical evidence to substantiate the allegation, nor did it explain how control of the account was reportedly restored within minutes — a timeline critics say is implausible.
The lack of transparency has fuelled doubts about whether the explanation was genuine or an attempt at damage control.
Those doubts were reinforced by the tone of the original post, which began with what critics described as a clear ideological position. It stated that Jamaat’s stance on women was “principled,” explicitly rejecting women’s leadership roles within the party and asserting that such leadership was not permitted by Islam.
In subsequent posts, Rahman sought to shift the focus to Jamaat’s stated commitments in its forthcoming manifesto.
He said the party supports women’s participation in education, healthcare, administration, entrepreneurship and public service, and pointed to pledges on girls’ education, safe campuses, zero tolerance for harassment, women-centred healthcare, equal pay, safe workplaces and childcare support.
He said these positions were not new and had been reiterated at a policy summit on January 20, adding that Jamaat’s full manifesto would be unveiled on February 3.
“Judge me by my record and the manifesto, not false narratives,” Rahman wrote, claiming that respect for women was essential for national progress.
The statement came under fire from political parties, with both the BNP and the currently banned Awami League refusing to buy the claim.
Citing discrepancies between the time the post was made and claims of hacking, the BNP noted that there was a nine-hour difference between the two, which alone was more than sufficient to erode the credibility of the Ameer’s claims, remarking that if the account of a major political party was truly hacked, then it should have immediately informed the public.
The party further noted that the Jamaat’s justification came only after the post had circulated enough to trigger a massive public outrage, further undermining the statement.
The currently banned Awami League, likewise echoed those doubts in a statement on X.
Highlighting the post, it argued that the consistency of language, its alignment with Jamaat’s past positions and the initial silence from party leaders suggested the post reflected genuine, entrenched views rather than a cyber intrusion, terming the statement more like damage control in response to the overwhelming public criticism rather than a clarification. . . .