The tale of the insidious 'guest room' culture

A few days ago, Arafat Hossain Bhuiyan, a student at Dhaka University, made a startling realisation—he had his mother's full name saved in his phone's contact list instead of simply 'Maa' or 'Amma'. 

At first glance, it might seem trivial. But the truth behind this decision by Arafat, who once resided in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall, was far more unsettling. 

It was born out of sheer fear.

"A terrifying incident involving another resident of Bijoy Ekattor Hall is what made me take this precaution," Arafat recalled.

In January 2023, a student named Shahriad Hossain was brutally tortured throughout the night by Chhatra League activists "on suspicion of being a Shibir member."

His hair was yanked, and he was mercilessly slapped and beaten with pipes, bamboo sticks, and waist belts to force a confession. 

Come morning, they seized Shahriad's phone to video call his mother. After a brief pause, the torment resumed, with a chilling threat: if he didn't confess to being a Shibir member, they would continue beating him while keeping his mother on the call—forcing her to witness it, until she succumbed to a heart attack.

It is only after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's regime, following a student-led mass uprising, that some university students have begun to speak out publicly against the guest room culture. But most are afraid that the same culture may resurface sooner rather than later unless effective measures are taken to prevent it.

Instead of giving in to their demands, Shahriad endured the torment and then exposed it to the public, sparking student outrage and a brief campus movement seeking justice. 

Still, justice was never served. 

And so, while Arafat himself had never faced such brutal torture during his time as a resident of DU dormitory, the fear that one day he too could be subjected to the same horrors always lingered.

"That's why I, and many others like me, saved our parents' numbers under their full names lest they too would have to witness the atrocities," he shared. 

At one point, he decided to leave his hall entirely, feeling that the experience was becoming too unpleasant for him.

This was the extent of fear that students at Dhaka University, either apolitical or holding ideologies different from those of Chhatra League, had to endure constantly. 

Closely tied to this fear were the façades known as the "gono room" and "guest room". 

In their first year, new students often found it difficult to secure a legal seat in the residential halls due to hall authorities citing a shortage of available rooms. 

But for those without local relatives or the financial means to afford off-campus housing, the halls were their sole option.

Exploiting this situation, Chhatra League leaders would pack these vulnerable students into gono rooms, where as many as 20 to 100 students were forced to share a single space.

Even more insidious practices took place at night, when second-year Chhatra League members would summon first-year students to the hall's guest room. 

There, these juniors were subjected to mental and physical abuse for even the slightest actions that displeased their seniors.

"In most halls, there was also a strict chain of command. While freshmen were summoned by second-year students, the latter themselves answered to their third-year seniors, with the hierarchy extending all the way up to the Master's level," said Sabbir Hossain, another student of the university. 

Although these activities bore similarities to the common practice of ragging seen worldwide, their treacherous nature set them apart. 

Political affiliations and deliberate exploitation of vulnerable students to extend influence made the guest room practices far more calculated and dangerous than typical ragging found elsewhere.

In many instances, the guest room culture sought to completely dehumanise new students by imposing harsh and absurd restrictions on them.

For example, the freshmen were confined to their designated gono rooms and barred from entering other rooms or staying in the mosque for night prayers. 

They were only allowed to eat at a specific table in the hall canteen and were prohibited from purchasing food from any other stores within the hall premises.

Leaving the hall required permission from 10 to 15 immediate seniors, and upon returning, they had to report back to the same seniors. 

Forming friendships with "outsiders" or interacting with seniors of two years or beyond was strictly forbidden.

There was also a total breach of privacy in the guest rooms. Upon entering, seniors would confiscate the juniors' mobile phones and scrutinise them as they wished. Any content deemed critical of the establishment would lead to night-long torture.

On top of everything, not attending political events or failing to recognise and greet seniors in the campus crowd with a 'salam' was considered the gravest of offences.

"The easiest way to target someone was to label them as a Shibir member, which could justify any brutality against them," said Sabbir.

In 2022, Molla Taimur Rahman, a resident of Sir AF Rahman Hall, endured brutal treatment from Chhatra League members over a minor issue, which was considered a "major fault" in the guest rooms.

Taimur, who volunteered with Badhon, a blood donation organisation, was one day called up by a senior member of it to the hall grounds to inquire about his blood type. 

That evening, when Taimur went to the guest room, a Chhatra League member confronted him and demanded to know why he had been speaking to a senior on the hall grounds.

When Taimur explained the situation, the Chhatra League member, Rokonuzzaman Rokon, erupted in a torrent of abuse and slapped him forcefully. 

"The impact was so severe that I lost consciousness. I was unable to hear anything for several hours and was subsequently taken to the hospital," he said. 

Later, when he expressed his intention to file a written complaint with the hall provost against the perpetrator, he was threatened again. 

"He even said he would kill me," Taimur recalled. Following this incident, he couldn't stay at the hall for six months. 

Some other students occasionally tried to voice their opposition to the guest room culture on social media. 

Ironically, some of them ended up being tortured in the guest rooms simply for reacting to the posts critical of the culture.

For instance, in 2021 at the same hall, five first-year students were beaten by second-year Chhatra League members. Their only "fault" was showing support on Facebook for a post advocating the end of the guest room culture.

Although this news surfaced in some mainstream media at the time, the victims remained silent, fearing that speaking out would only result in further torture.

In 2023, the student rights organisation Students Against Torture (SAT) published a study revealing that 27 Dhaka University students had been subjected to mental and/or physical torture in 2022. No similar study was conducted for 2023.

However, Saleh Uddin Sifat, a law graduate from DU and director of SAT, suggested that the actual number of torture incidents could be significantly higher. 

"Most incidents of torture go unreported because victims are coerced into silence," he said.

Despite having complete control over the male students' halls, the Chhatra League had limited influence in the female students' halls due to strict administrative control over seat allocation. 

Nevertheless, student politics persisted there as well, allowing some political leaders to gain unfair advantages and exert control over others.

The situation was similarly troubling at other public universities across the country. Almost every public university had a guest room culture, even if it wasn't explicitly named as such.

In 2019, BUET student Abrar Fahad was brutally murdered by Chhatra League activists over a Facebook post critical of the government. 

Many view this killing as an extension of the guest room culture. Following the incident, student politics at BUET was banned.

The death of Hafizur Molla at Dhaka University in 2016 is also frequently attributed to Chhatra League's brutality. Hafizur, who was staying in the balcony of Salimullah Muslim Hall, died from pneumonia and typhoid.

According to his family, he contracted a cold from living on the balcony of the hall during winter and from participating in Chhatra League activities at night. 

It is only after the fall of Sheikh Hasina's regime, following a student-led mass uprising, that some university students have begun to speak out publicly against the guest room culture.

But most are afraid that the same culture may resurface sooner rather than later unless effective measures are taken to prevent it.

Some advocate for a complete ban on student politics from university campuses, while others disagree. They prefer focusing on abolishing the gono room and guest room culture instead.

"I believe the university authorities should implement strict measures before reopening the universities. These measures should include allocating dormitory seats based on merit. There should be no such thing as a gono room or guest room," said Sheikh Shahidul Islam, former president of Bangladesh Chhatra League.