Gender equality in a university is partly about big policies and partly about small, visible firsts. October 2024 had two of them.
A hall of their own
On 16 October 2024 the newly constructed Bir Protik Taramon Bibi Hall, a women's residential hall, formally began operations. For a residential university, additional hall capacity for women directly affects who can take up a place and stay.
The first women's football tournament
On 25 October 2024 the university inaugurated its first two-day women's football tournament, organised by the Jahangirnagar University Women's Sports Society. A few months later, during the central annual sports competition that concluded on 5 February 2025, female students took part alongside their male peers and Begum Sufia Kamal Hall won the women's hall championship.
Voices in leadership and research
Women's participation in university leadership is documented in faculty records. Professor Rasheda Akhtar, for example, has served as Chairperson of Anthropology, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Director of the Students Counselling and Guidance Centre, and Convener of the Sexual Harassment Complaint Committee. The Department of Anthropology has long been a place where academic rigour meets social advocacy, working so that women's perspectives are heard in the classroom, in research and in national debates on equality and rights.
University-hosted journals publish studies on gendered language in law and policy, women's economic empowerment through microcredit, and gender-inclusive climate adaptation.
Safe to learn
The university maintains an official page for its Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee, including a definition of sexual harassment, and the Students Counselling and Guidance Centre lists victim or survivor advocacy among its services. The JUCSU Complaint and Advice Centre adds an online route for raising concerns, with an anonymous option and status tracking. The administration observed International Women's Day on 9 March 2025.