Calcutta, Aug. 9: A teacher of Aliah University was allegedly barred from class and then transferred because she refused to bow to the “diktat” of the students’ union to wear a burqa.

The Madrasa Students’ Union had issued a directive in April that the eight women teachers, all Muslims, must wear a burqa to class, and set a 14-day deadline for them to adopt the dress code.

Seven of the teachers at the Haji Mohammed Mohsin Square campus decided to comply, but a 24-year-old post-graduate from Jadavpur University (name withheld to protect identity) refused. “The students have no business imposing such a diktat on teachers when the university guidelines clearly state that there is no dress code. I will wear a burqa only when I feel like,” she told The Telegraph. “I was first barred from the classroom and then transferred to the university’s Salt Lake campus,” she said. There, for the past three months, she has been limited to library work though she was appointed as a Bengali teacher.

The students’ union of the university alleged that the teacher was “indecently dressed” and she would not be allowed to teach if she did not get into a burqa.“We admit there is no dress code for teachers in the university, but considering the character of the institution we insist that lady teachers wear only traditional dresses,” said Siamat Ali, the state general secretary of the West Bengal Madrasa Students’ Union. The teacher wrote to vice-chancellor Syed Samsul Alam, Anwar Hussain Dafadar, the university registrar, and Abdus Sattar, the minister of state for minority affairs. “We will soon start allotting classes to her,” said Dafadar.