Institute of Public Health withdraws dress code notice for Muslim staffers

In the face of public backlash, the Institute of Public Health (IPH) has withdrawn a notice that asked its Muslim officials to maintain specific dress code in the office.

On Thursday evening, in another notice, the institution regretted the previous order and offered apology to the nation.

The notification, signed by IPH Director Dr Mohammad Abdur Rahim, termed it as "unintentional mistake" and vowed not to repeat such an incident.

Earlier, the IPH has instructed the employees to follow the Islamic dress code in the office.

On Wednesday, a notice signed by its Director Dr Mohammad Abdur Rahim, read that Muslim male employees have to wear clothes above the ankle and female employees must wear hijab and clothes that go below the ankle in length.

The notice also asked the employees to keep their phones on silent mode during office time.

In the meantime, the Health Services Division has served the IPH director a show-cause notice, seeking an explanation over the latter's office order.

The show-cause notice, signed by Deputy Secretary to the Health Services Division, Sharmin Akter Jahan, asked the public health director to clarify and explain the issue within the next three working days.

Dr Hasan Imam, director (administration), of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told The Business Standard, "We do not know why the director of the institute issued such a notice. As far as I know, there is no such government service rule that permits issuing such a notice. He gave the notice at his own discretion."

"Although the institute is not directly under the purview of the DGHS, it is an institution under the control of the director general of the DGHS. We would have known if there was any such official decision. The matter has been reported to the director general of the DGHS. As he is out of Dhaka, no decision has been taken against the director yet," he added.

Professor Nasima Sultana, additional director general of DGHS, told the Business Standard, no one can decide what kind of clothes to wear in office. The director of the IPH cannot give any such letter. They have informed the health ministry about this. The ministry will take action against him.