AMU set to close door on Asma

Manjari Mishra / TNN / Aug 28, 2006, 02:47 IST

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Farha had become an icon of sorts for her compatriots when she went official about sexual harassment on the campus.

LUCKNOW: First it was Farha Aziz Khan, the gutsy journalism student, who quietly withdrew her complaint filed before the Aligarh Muslim University Women Grievance Redressal Cell in February 2006. Farha had become an icon of sorts for her compatriots when she went official about sexual harassment on the campus .
Now Asma Javed, another post graduate student who raked up the taboo subject once again on March 1, finds herself against a wall as university authorities allegedly conspire to show her the doors.
Asma approached the cell to lodge a complaint against Mohammad Shareef, a reader in the department of Sanskrit, who was later placed under suspension pending the inquiry. Five months later the girl is a nervous wreck. A malicious campaign has tarnished her image among her peers, she is being shadowed and threatened constantly. The proceedings in the women cell, she told TOI on Wednesday "are extremely humiliating and biased" and now the university has closed its door on her face by denying her admission in PhD. Asma now plans to take her case to National Women Commission.
An OBC and a first divisioner throughout, Asma claims to have missed the PhD entrance test by one mark in the general category despite the fact that her score is higher that the cut out marks meant for the reserved quota. "I had anticipated that the university authorities will try to get rid of me on one pretext or another and that was the reason I had affixed the special category certificate along with my form. However the authorities" she says have chosen to coolly ignore her special status.

"I have petitioned the vice-chancellor last week but so far received no intimation," she told TOI.
Luckily for her, a large section of students are supporting Asma's cause. Talking to TOI, Nafees Ahmad, a candidate for the AMU Students Council, claimed that registrar Faizan Mustafa issued him a veiled threat when he along with other students protested against injustice to Asma. "They are trying to pressurise her to withdraw her plaint and her failing the PhD entrance is aimed at breaking her spirit," declared Mazin Hussain, another student leader.

Asma, while narrating her experience in the Cell on the last meeting held on August 17, broke down on the telephone. "The registrar called me a liar and a cheat and accused me of filing a false plaint to implicate Shareef," she claimed. Significantly Shareef has produced before the Cell an affidavit of students declaiming their earlier version.
"They did so under pressure," counters Hussain for "no one wants to spoil his or her career." The registrar despite repeated attempts could not be contacted by TOI. Secretary, AMU Teachers' Association, Mohammad Rizwan Khan however debunked any bias in the entrance exam. The entrance is fair and impartial and it is wrong on part of the girl to link the result with her complaint, he declared.

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