Abuse behind madrasa walls must be stopped (Part I)

For more than a decade, Bangladesh has seen recurring reports of children being sexually harassed, brutally beaten and psychologically abused in madrasas, followed by public outrage but little correction and reforms. Weak monitoring, absence of reliable annual statistics and limited state oversight have left the scale of abuse largely undocumented, creating a crisis sustained by silence, poverty and institutional impunity.

Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) documented 62 cases of madrasa students being raped over 15 months from January 1, 2025, with three of them dying. Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) reported that the trend continued through 2025 and into 2026. Rights bodies warned that the real number is likely higher, as no government agency maintains a central annual record of such abuses in madrasas.

Rights organisations have watched the pattern harden. MJF pointed to cases in Netrokona and Patuakhali as evidence of a worsening trend and called for sexual harassment committees to be formed in every madrasa.

In Netrokona, a student at Hazrat Fatematuz Zohura Mohila Qawmi Madrasa was allegedly abused for months by her teacher, Aman Ullah Sagar, beginning in October 2025. 

The case came to light in April 2026, when a medical examination found that she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. 

Sagar denied the allegation on Facebook Live before the Rapid Action Battalion detained him. The doctor who first raised the alarm was later threatened with rape and death.

In Dhaka, 10-year-old Abdullah, a student at Alokito Quran International Hifz Madrasah, reportedly took his own life after being sexually assaulted. A senior student, Shihab Hussain, was arrested and jailed.

Elsewhere, a 13-year-old was allegedly raped by a head teacher in Kurigram; a 10-year-old was allegedly abused in Kushtia, leading to three arrests; a child was allegedly raped by a teacher, Md Ibrahim, in Patuakhali; and four girls aged between 11 and 13 were allegedly abused in Joypurhat.

Before these cases, in Lakshmipur, a teacher was filmed whipping an eight-year-old 21 times in 23 seconds. The body of a seven-year-old was later found at the same madrasa.

LAW PROTECTS SCHOOLS BUT FAILS AT MADRASAS
Bangladesh's legal safeguards against child abuse are not thin on paper. On January 13, 2011, the High Court, acting on a writ filed by the Law and Arbitration Centre and the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), declared corporal punishment in educational institutions unconstitutional, calling it cruel, inhuman and degrading. The Ministry of Education followed with a circular that April, adopting a formal policy against physical and mental punishment of students.

The Children Act 2013, the Prevention of Repression against Women and Children Act 2000, and Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provide further protection. Under the Children Act, abusing or neglecting a child carries up to five years' imprisonment, a fine of up to Tk 1 lakh, or both.

The 2011 ruling appears to have worked, at least in mainstream schools, as ASK's count of abuse cases fell from 516 in 2011 to almost nil today. But in madrasas, the pattern continued. Reports persisted from 2018 through 2025-26, with the Netrokona and Alokito Quran Madrasah cases among the latest entries. ASK and the Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) both say the recorded figures capture only a fraction of what actually happens.

The reason is structural. Outside the Alia madrasas, the government exercises no direct oversight over Qawmi, Hafezi or privately run madrasas, a massive gap that the Directorate of Madrasa Education itself concedes. "His office has no control over these institutions," said deputy director Mohammad Arifur Rahman Majumder, though he maintained that offenders should still face criminal justice.

Convictions remain the exception rather than the rule. In June 2025, a tribunal in Chattogram sentenced Nazim Uddin, director and teacher at Rahmania Tahfizul Quran Academy, to imprisonment until death, with a fine of Tk 500,000, for raping six students aged between 11 and 16 between 2019 and 2021. In another Chattogram case, a madrasa teacher was sentenced to death for raping four minor boys during the pandemic.

Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon recently promised strict action against the torture of madrasa students.

WHAT THE TORTURE LOOKS LIKE
Survivors describe a routine of violence. Hasan Wali, who spent nearly five years moving through maktab, hefzkhana and Qawmi schooling before completing his Dakhil, remembers being kicked and caned until students blacked out.

Some, he said, spread the belief that the scars left on children's bodies by a "Huzoor" would not burn in the next life. Poorer parents, Wali said, tend to accept such treatment as a tradition, reflected in the phrase guardians still offer at admission: "Your meat and my bones" - a surrender of the child's body to the teacher's discipline.

A crowdsourced survey found that 60 per cent of respondents had endured brutal beatings, while 40 per cent had experienced verbal abuse and threats. Videos circulate online showing children being caned, held by the ears and dunked in water.

"Children living in daily fear experience education as terror rather than knowledge," said educationist and former adviser to a caretaker government Rasheda K Chowdhury. "A fear that stunts both mental development and creativity."

The Befaqul Madarisil Arabia Bangladesh, the country's largest Qawmi madrasa board, insists that caning has been banned and teachers are being trained in non-violent discipline. Board official Abu Bakr Yusufi called the recent incidents isolated and relics of the past, and accused the media of exaggeration.

However, Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed, a child psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health, said, "Madrasa students face disproportionate exposure to corporal punishment - exposure that breeds depression, chronic fear, aggression."

One survivor from Gazipur put it simply: "Now, if someone speaks loudly, I get scared. If I go to school, I feel like I will be beaten again."