A private university in the eastern city of Kolkata Indiahas been embroiled in controversy in recent months.
Former assistant professor at St. Xavier told the BBC that she was forced to quit her job by posting pictures of her in a bikini on Instagram. The university denies that this is the reason for his dismissal.
The woman, who requested anonymity, accused university officials of committing a crime sexual harassment She said she had been “intimidated and subjected to moral censorship”.
She also lodged a complaint with the police and sent a legal notice to the foundation, which responded by accusing it of defamation and demanding compensation of Rs 990 million (about R$12 million).
They took me to the interrogation room.
The assistant professor says she joined the faculty on August 9, 2021 to teach English in undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
Two months later, she was called to the dean’s office for a meeting.
She was “taken to the interrogation room”, where she was questioned by a panel made up of Vice-Chancellor Felix Raj, a secretary and five women.
She was informed that a complaint had been filed against her by the father of a first-year university student.
“The dean said this father found his son looking at my Instagram photos where I was only wearing my underwear. He said the photos were sexually explicit and asked the university to protect his son from such vulgarity.”
Council members handed out a sheet of paper with “five or six pictures” and asked her to confirm that it was indeed her picture.
“Have your parents seen these pictures?”
She says the photos, in which she was wearing a bikini, were selfies taken in her bedroom. She shared them as stories on Instagram, which means they disappeared after 24 hours.
And the university board did not accept her explanation: the photos were published on June 13, 2021, about two months before she joined the university and before accepting requests from her students to follow her own account.
The teacher said, “I was shocked. When I saw the pictures, I had a panic attack. I felt it was unrealistic to share my personal pictures without my consent.”
“I couldn’t stand looking at my own pictures and the way they were presented to me. The conversation around them made me think it was cliched. I realized I was like gas. (An English term for a kind of emotional harassment), I’m starting to feel sabotaged.”
“They asked me why I did it. If I, as a woman, I don’t think it’s questionable. If I, as an educator, didn’t feel it was my duty to society to do right.”
“They told me I was bringing shame and disgrace to the university. They asked me if my parents were on Instagram and if they had seen those pictures. I felt sick and was in shock.”
She was told to come back the next day with a report on the matter.
Apology and ‘forced resignation’
The professor returned to the dean’s office the next day and made an apology “written on the advice of some faculty members who included the Director of the Gender Unit,” a former fellow and adjunct professor who was also on the committee.
“If my photos have been interpreted in a way that would discredit the university, I am sorry,” she wrote.
The teacher said it was a “very unpleasant experience”.
She had hoped it would end there, but the dean said the board had “unanimously recommended her resignation”.
“He said the pictures had already gone viral, that most of the students had seen them, that they wouldn’t take me seriously and that their parents would complain. And it would be better if I resigned voluntarily.”
Otherwise, the brigadier general said she would “go to prison because the father of (the student who saw the photo) wanted to file a complaint with the police.”
“I felt trapped and resigned,” she says.
“But I was also very angry and sought legal advice. They downloaded my photos, took screenshots and shared them without my consent. My lawyer suggested I file a sexual harassment complaint with the Cybercrime Police,” she said.
We are not asking you to resign.
Father Felix Raj, vice-chancellor of the university, declined to comment on whether the commission had recommended his resignation, but denied all charges against him and the university.
“We are a sacred institution of learning and knowledge. As Dean and Principal of the University, I told her that she should not have shown these images.”
The vice chancellor says he did not force her to resign and that she left of her own free will.
“She delivered a letter of apology on October 8, 2021. We accepted it. I thought it was a nice gesture. But then she resigned on October 25.”
“They don’t hate her,” she says, and that at university they were “nice to her.”
When asked about the professor’s claim that her photos were not available on her Instagram account after she attended college and that a faculty member was vandalizing her, Father Velez Raj said he was “not an expert in technology”.
A brutal form of moral oversight.
Many students and alumni criticized the measure against the teacher for being “backward”.
A change.org petition, initiated by university alumnus Gaurav Banerjee and addressed to the Minister of Education of West Bengal, has received more than 25,000 signatures.
Banerjee told the BBC he wanted the university to apologize to the professor and ask the government to take disciplinary action against the committee for its arrogant behaviour.
“I am glad that so many people, like me, are terrified that the university could do such a thing,” he said.
Recently, dozens of college students organized a silent demonstration.
“We heard about this brutal form of moral monitoring that one of our professors was subjected to,” said one of the protesters.
“It is totally unacceptable,” he said. “Why should anyone care what I do in my private space? Our personal space should be safeguarded.” “It’s scary that the members of the committee, which includes five women, didn’t think this was an ethical watch.”
The teacher said she was “touched by all the support and gratitude”.
“After months of feeling bad, I feel like people are seeing how ridiculous all of this is.”
She argues that the right to privacy and self-expression is safeguarded and guaranteed by the Indian constitution, and this “monitoring” has extended well beyond the workplace.
“It is my firm belief that I have done nothing wrong. I may not win this case, but for me it is an important battle,” she said.
This text was originally published over here.
