B’desh uses ‘sacred’ Arabic signs to stop men peeing in public

Authorities in Muslim-majority Bangladesh appear to have finally succeeded in long drawn efforts to stop men urinating in public, playing on people’s respect for Arabic which is regarded as a sacred language.

The religious affairs ministry recently took to replacing signs prohibiting urination in Bengali, with identical messages in Arabic, a move that has had a visible effect in stopping people urinating on roadsides and walls, even though most people do not know the language. A video clip which was widely shared on social media like Facebook showed people who were about to urinate on street sides holding themselves back upon seeing the Arabic signs.

The two-minute clip shows many people checking themselves at the last moment in a pious gesture of respect to the warnings in Arabic, the language in which the holy Koran is written, thinking it to be a sacred message.