Suicide of Fathima Latheef

Hailing from the Randamkutty locality[4] in Kilikollur, Kollam, Kerala, Fathima was raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with her twin-sister Aysha[5] by her father Abdul and mother Sajitha.[6] She attended Yara International School[7][8] until 9th standard.[9] Upon returning to India in 2015,[10] she enrolled at The Oxford School in Umayanalloor, attending for one year before pursuing higher education in a state-affiliated curriculum school.[10] She enrolled as a first-year student of the humanities stream (a five-year integrated MA programme) offered at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, and was widely described as an intelligent and academically competent student.[11][12][13] Fathima had also been accepted to Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi after winning the Humanities entrance exam, though her mother, reluctant to send her due to news of mob lynchings in the northern states, persuaded on her daughter into accepting IIT Madras's offer. Fathima began her studies at the institute on July 29, 2019. Her parents reported that she felt the IIT campus atmosphere was oppressive.[14]

Fathima was discovered hanging from the ceiling of her hostel room around noon on November 9, 2019 by the hostel warden. According to the authorities, she was alleged to have attempted suicide the night before. Around 11 a.m. on November 9, IIT administration notified her family of her death. The body was taken to the Royapettah Government Hospital for a post-mortem and a charge of unnatural death was filed with the Chennai City Police (Kotturpuram).[14]

According to the students, Fathima's hostel mates received a phone call from her family about 11.30 a.m., stating that she had been inaccessible on her phone since the morning. According to the students, the chief of wardens and the head of the humanities department helped the warden in dispersing students gathered at the hostel. In the absence of the police or any witnesses, students at the scene claimed that staff members investigated Fathima's room, which had become a crime scene by that time.[15]

Two days before her death, she told her father, who was working in Saudi Arabia at the time, through video chat that her name revealed her Muslim origin, which her mother was worried about.[14] Her father alleged immediately after his daughter's death that he had evidence to prove that Fathima was being harassed by some professors in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences.[16] Her refused believe her suicide was due to academic pressure.[14]

My name itself is the problem, vappichi

— Fathima Latheef to her family, [14]

Her father said that Fathima had previously talked openly about being harassed by the professor she had blamed in her notes, calling him a "bad guy" and being tangibly scared about attending his classes; this fear was so great that she wasn't able to get her mark sheet from him, having her friend get it for her instead. Latheef further claimed that he suspected the professor was discriminating against Fathima because she had continuously excelled in all of her classes.[17]

Three days after the incident, her father demanded a fair probe into the incident, alleging that harassment and caste discrimination by the professors pushed his daughter to take the extreme step. He also stated that they had retrieved a suicide note from Fathima's phone, where she allegedly blamed three professors from her department for her death.[18] Her family members also alleged that she had faced communal discrimination from some teachers and students on the campus.[19]

There were rumours that Fathima had scored low marks in a certain subject and was thus upset. Apparently, Fathima had scored 13 out of 20 marks in an Internal Assessment in Logic but believed she deserved more. She had approached the Head of the department for a review. The professor reviewed it and sent the paper back the professor she had name on her phone, who had evaluated the paper. She was the topper in the paper; the student in second place in the test had scored 11 marks and the one in third place had scored 9. The professor had apparently asked Fathima to meet him on Monday, 11 November, but Fathima was found dead in her hostel room on Saturday. The family suspects something happened which had impacted Fathima drastically.[20]

The students of Delhi University issued a statement demanding justice for Latheef and condemned the alleged caste and religious discrimination.[18]

MK Stalin demanded a time-bound, fair, transparent, and independent probe into the matter. In a statement, he stated that it was a shame to hear the victim's mother say her daughter was belittled and subjected to stress. He also stated “It's time we avoid saffronisation of educational institutions.”[18]

An autonomous student body at IIT-M, the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, published a statement condemning IIT-Madras' "brahminical hegemony". The group has demanded a "fair probe" into Fathima's death. Many students accused IIT-Madras of being "anti-Muslim", "anti-minority", and of discriminating against students from marginalized communities, such as Adivasis, Other Backward Classes, and Dalits.[15]

“My college is a hostile space that stinks of elitism, casteism, classism, and most notably Islamophobia,” said Alfiya, a Humanities student, claiming. “This university, especially the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, is rife with anti-Muslim and anti-caste sentiments.” She stated that one of the staff members asked her, 'Why are Muslims and Christians labelled minorities when their populations are vast, yet Brahmins make up only 2% of the Indian population?'.[29]

On 18 November 2019, students of the institute sat on a hunger strike demanding the management constitute an external expert panel to survey the overall mental well-being of students. They also demanded setting up a Grievance Redressal Cell for each department and conducting an internal probe into the allegations made by Fathima's family. The management accepted the first two demands and the students called off the strike.[30] However, when the students met the director on 21 November, he told them the institute cannot form an internal probe committee as an investigation was already underway by the authorities.[31]