Bangladesh uses Arabic to stop public Urinating
Authorities in Bangladesh appear to be winning the battle to stop people from urinating in public by putting up signs in Arabic, which is regarded by Muslim Bengalis as a sacred language.
Although most Bengalis are not even able to read Arabic, the recent decision of the religious affairs ministry to put up signs telling people not to pee in public seem to be working.
A two-minute video clip has gone viral and is being shared on social media, including Facebook. It shows a group of people approaching a public wall to urinate, but then as soon as they read the Arabic sign they make sure their flies stay zipped and make a pious gesture in respect to the Arabic language.
Arabic is sacred because it is the language the Koran is written in. Similar signs in the Bengali language were having little effect.
“I don’t understand why people urinate by the roadsides. Especially when every mosque provides public toilet facilities,” Matior Rahman, the country’s religious affairs minister, says in the video.
A spokesmen for the religious affairs ministry said the campaign had been a success.
“We took the initiative to erase the warnings in Bangla language against urinating in public and instead wrote the same message in Arabic, you can see the result yourself – it appears to be a successful campaign so far,” he said.
