Asif Mahtab Utsha

Asif Mahtab Utsha (Bangla: আসিফ মাহতাব উৎস, Born January 15, 1992) is a Bangladeshi Islamic philosopher, teacher, and activist.

He has taken part in many political protests, while leading and organizing quite a few himself.

Asif Mahtab Utsha was born on 15 January 1992 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

His father MD. Shahabur Rahman worked in Biman Bangladesh Airlines and was a political activist himself during his student years in the University of Dhaka serving as the president of Bangladesh Chhatra League at the time.

His mother Salma Jahan Sharmeen works as a teacher in Aga Khan Academy, a prestigious international English medium school in Bangladesh.

He has one younger sister who also graduated from Aga Khan School and later did her bachelors from North South University.

Asif Mahtab Utsha's hometown is in Gopalganj.

His paternal grandfather Abdur Salam Mallik worked as an inspector for Bangladesh Police.

His maternal great grandfather Ali Azam Bhuyia was a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP).

Asif Mahtab Utsha went to Aga Khan School until grade-9 after which he left school and gave his Ordinary Level and Advance Level exam privately under Edexcel board.

During his school years he was known to be restless and hyperactive.

His teachers often praised his intelligence but always said he could do much better if he only tried harder.

He was athletic and active.

He frequently received medals in school Olympics.

In grade-7 he became the general secretary of the Aga Khan School chess club and by grade-8 he was promoted to the president.

During this time he organized both interschool and intraschool chess tournaments.

Although he received no formal chess training, he won 3rd place in Aga Khan School centenary chess tournament, and received runners up position in the intraschool chess tournament held by his school.

He also trained for Mixed Martial Arts in Deadlock Combat Systems specializing in Muay Thai under his instructor David Abrams, Bangladesh Navy, for two years.

This was during and his A-Levels and continued after when he worked as an O-Level Physics teacher for Kids Campus School.

His most notable leadership role was during the no vat on education campaign in 2015, where he as an undergraduate student planned and organized the blockade of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh by contacting and asking each major university in Dhaka to capture and hold a strategically important highway.

After two days of blockade, the government of Bangladesh withdraw the proposed bill to add 15% vat on all private university students of Bangladesh.

Asif Mahtab Utsha came to prominence after he tore two pages of grade-7 children's text book in a teachers forum, that was placed in the national curriculum is 2023 in protest of a story that promoted transgenderism.

He also urged everyone in Bangladesh to buy the book, tear the two pages, and subsequently return it back to the seller asking him to resell it with half the price.

He was fired from from the university he was working for (Brac University) at midnight January 21, 2024, within 24 hours after his call to action became viral on social media.

This resulted in nation wide unrest and the entire country tearing those two pages from the book, starting a massive protest against Brac University and National Curriculum and Textbook Board.

The aftermath resulted in a legal notice from supreme court lawyer Md Mahmudul Hasan to the Secretary of the Ministry of Education and the Chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) threatening legal action.

Subsequently, a 5 member committee of experts was formed by the ministry of education to review the story.

On February 28, 2015 he won first price at a annual public Speaking Competition hosted by the university.

Asif Mahtab Utsha took a year gap after his O-Levels and worked in different call centers due to financial issues.

After his A-Levels he worked as a grade-10 O-Level Physics Teacher in Kids Campus School, Dhaka.

While he was perusing his undergrad He also worked as a researcher and brand ambassador for Don Sumdany Consultancy and Facilitation, a corporate and non-corporate training firm founded by the renowned motivational speaker Golam Sumdany Don.

Here he lead the research team and co-authored three pocket books, ' Power of Positive Thinking ', ' Communication and Public Speaking ', 'CV writing and Interview skills '.

He also worked as a research assistant in North South University, Political Science and Sociology under Dr. Mahbubur Rahman and assisted in his research on election, politics and democracy.

Asif Mahtab Utsha completed his Bachelors of Arts in English from North South University in 2017.

He majored in Linguistic graduating with the academic distinction of Cum Laude and was the 4th highest CGPA in his department graduating batch.

During his studies, he was awarded 50% merit based scholarship from the University.

After graduating from North South University he briefly worked as a Corporate Trainer in British American Resource Center before shifting to Kid's Campus School where he worked as a O-Level English Teacher till 2019.

After completing his post-graduation in Philosophy from University of Glasgow, he came back to Bangladesh and joined as an adjunct lecturer of philosopher at Independent University, Bangladesh where he took two courses: Introduction to Philosophy and Philosophy of religion for two years till 2023.

During this time he published his masters thesis Integration of Theism into Hobbes’s State of Nature in a Dhaka University journal called Philosophy and Progress on October 19, 2022.

After which he joined BRAC as a part-time lecturer teaching the course 'Ethics and Culture' for a semester and was renewed for second semester before having his contract abruptly canceled by the university after he protested against Transgender stories in national curriculum textbook.