Dhaka University teacher Samia Rahman says she is the victim of a conspiracy after being penalised by the institution for stealing content in a research paper.
She made the claim at a press conference on Monday, more than a month after the Dhaka University Syndicate demoted her from associate professor to assistant professor of mass communication and journalism on a charge of plagiarism.
However, Samia said she had been framed on the basis of a “false letter” as part of a plot against her.
The university syndicate also penalised Syed Mahfujul Haque Marjan, lecturer of the criminal science department and co-researcher of Samia, after finding evidence of plagiarism in the study.
As a result of her demotion, Samia will not be eligible to apply for a promotion in the next two years. Marjan, currently on study leave, will also remain in the same post for two years after rejoining work.
In December 2016, Samia and Marjan co-authored an eight-page research paper titled ‘A New Dimension of Colonialism and Pop Culture: A Case Study of the Cultural Imperialism,’ published in the University’s Social Science Review journal.
However, it later emerged that they had plagiarised nearly five pages of an article titled “The Subject and Power” by French philosopher Michel Foucault, published in the University of Chicago’s Critical Inquiry journal in 1982.
Almost a year later in September 2017, the University of Chicago Press sent a written complaint to the Dhaka University authorities over the matter.
Speaking to the media at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, Samia announced that she will challenge the university’s decision in court.
Samia said, “I became the ultimate victim of vengeance and filthy teachers’ politics at the university.”
“For the last four years, I have been forced to stay quiet due to the investigation and pressure from the university administration. The conspirators have taken advantage of this by spreading propaganda against me. Of course, I am going to the court with full confidence in the judiciary of Bangladesh.”
Samia and Marjan were also accused of copying multiple pages of intellectual Edward Sayed’s book ‘Culture and Imperialism’.
In light of the complaints, the university’s Syndicate formed an investigation committee to dig into the allegations.
The committee submitted its report in 2019 after a year-long investigation. Although the committee found proof of plagiarism, the report did not recommend action against the two.
After receiving the evidence of plagiarism, on Oct 29 last year, the acting dean of the law faculty and a member of the syndicate, Prof Md Rahmat Ullah was tasked with convening a tribunal to recommend the punishment for the academic misconduct.
The syndicate later took the decision to penalise Samia and Marjan following the recommendations of the tribunal on Jan 28.
Samia was punished on the basis of the allegations of plagiarism made by one Alex Martin in a letter from the University of Chicago but she claims there is no one by that name with any association with the Critical Inquiry journal.
“There is no-one called Alex Martin (sender of the letter from the University of Chicago Press, who identified himself as an administrative assistant of Critical Inquiry). No letter was sent from the journal — the editor of the publication himself acknowledged this.”
Samia also presented a screenshot of her conversation with the editor of the journal to the journalists at the press conference.
She further claimed that the impugned article was not her own writing.
“That article is not my own. As my student, I gave Marjan various ideas at different times. He wrote it using some of those ideas and added my name to it. He later submitted it to the Social Science Review Journal without informing me.”
After learning about the matter, Samia said that on Feb 2, 2016, she applied to the then Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Prof Farid Uddin, to withdraw it.
“The then vice chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique sir was also informed about it and he asked us to immediately raise the matter with the syndicate.
“But Dr Farid Uddin kept the matter pending as he bided his time. After keeping it under wraps for seven months, on Sept 15, 2017, when Arefin stepped down from the vice-chancellor’s chair, the fake letter was made in the name of the Chicago Journal, using the name of Alex Martin. There is no-one called Alex Martin,” she said.
“The tribunal has not been able to provide any documentary evidence of my involvement in the allegations of plagiarism against me. The syndicate may reduce the punishment from the recommendation of the tribunal. But how can they increase the punishment for allegations which are not backed up by proof?”
The decision taken by the university administration is ‘ill-motivated” and “biased”, according to her.
“The inquiry committee and the syndicate have drawn up a completely one-sided, hateful and biased punishment. They did not follow the tribunal’s decision, recommendation or even the decision of the university lawyer Mezbahuddin Ahmed.”
