(Dhaka) Bangladesh announced on Saturday that it was withdrawing from circulation, in the face of protests from Islamists, two new textbooks which recognized transgender identities and same-sex relationships, as well as, in terms of science, the theory of evolution.
Thousands of people have demonstrated in recent weeks to demand the removal of these books, intended for students aged 11 to 13.
One of the books notably told the story of a boy named Sharif, who becomes a woman, Sharifa, and goes to live with other transgender people.
Another, which also acknowledged homosexuality, was further criticized for explaining the theory of evolution — a theory considered ungodly by many religious extremists around the world, who refuse to have it taught.
The government justified this withdrawal by “a lot of criticism, and also to reduce the amount of reading required of students”.
“Many rural schools do not have the resources to teach from these books,” spokesman for the government agency responsible for publishing class books, Mohammad Mashiuzzaman, told AFP. “There is also debate surrounding the content of these books, so we have decided to withdraw them for the time being, so that no one can politicize this subject”.
In 2014, the government of Bangladesh allowed transgender people to officially call themselves a third gender, and has since improved their access to housing and higher education.
Many Muslim clerics have also declared these people to be from the Muslim world, and several transgender people have even won local elections.
But in this country where conservative Muslims remain the majority, the approximately 1.5 million (out of a population of 165 million) transgender people continue to be victims of discrimination and violence, and are often reduced to begging or prostitution to survive. .