Fifty girl students of Gerda AF Mujibur Rahman Secondary School in Sadar upazila of the district have been taking month-long training in self-defence to protect themselves from harassment by stalkers.

“It is a unique step for protecting the girls,” said Kulsum Begum, 30, a housewife of Kafura village in the upazila. She heard about it from her daughter, who is a student of Class X and is taking the training, she added.  

“I am taking this training to protect myself and also my friends from stalkers,” said Anju Akter, a Class X student.

“It takes 35 minutes to reach the school from my house on foot, so I think this training will help me to protect myself,” said, Aisha Akter, a Class IX student.

“Three stalkers had teased me two months ago while I was going to school. Now I can protest against it as I am taking this training,” Said Hima Akter, another Class IX student.

“AF Mujibur Rahman Foundation has been giving financial support for this training. We urge our girl students to take part so that they can protect themselves from stalkers. The training started on February 18 and runs for two hours after classes,” headmaster Nazrul Islam said.

He added that it will encourage parents to send their daughters to school.

“My daughter is a Class X student. It takes 30 minutes to walk from our house to the school, so I think the training will be very helpful for her,” said Rabeya Begum, 40, of Bilmamudpur village.

“We have arranged this training for girls as they have been facing different kind of problems on the way to school. We are giving training to 50 students and we will train more students in future,” said Mahfuzur Rahman, coordinator of AF Mujibur Rhaman Foundation.c