A 16-year-old student was attacked on Wednesday evening in the Lalmatia area after two young men confronted him for wearing football shorts on a public street, the boy’s family said.
The ninth-grader had finished practice for an upcoming school football tournament and gone straight to a nearby coaching class in his jersey and shorts, according to his mother. Around 7:30 p.m., after class, two men aged about 22–23 allegedly slapped him from behind, demanded to know “why he was in half-pants” and asked if he “didn’t have a pajama.” When the teen replied he had come from practice, the pair hurled insults and grabbed his jersey at the neck, leaving red marks, the family said. The boy struck back once and ran; the assailants fled when other students exited the center.
The student’s father, who arrived within a minute on a ride-share motorcycle, searched the lane but could not locate the suspects. The family, longtime residents of Dhanmondi, said they had never encountered such harassment over attire in the neighborhood. The mother described her son as shaken and said she now sends a pajama in his kit “just in case.” The boy later asked his father, “Is wearing shorts a crime?”
The incident comes amid sporadic disputes over dress in public spaces. Dhaka University sociologist Prof. Monirul I. Khan said a “cultural shift” is empowering dominant groups to impose personal preferences on others. “Those wearing shorts are not forcing anyone in pajamas to do the same,” he noted, calling the trend coercive and warning it erodes pluralism and democratic norms. He urged authorities to respond decisively and society to resist attempts to curtail individual freedoms.
As of publication, the family had not reported any arrests in connection with the assault.