Mithila enrolled in DU’s political science deptt thinking ‘there’s science in name’

Rafiat Rashid Mithila is a popular actress from both Bangladesh and West Bengal. She has long been known in the country as a social activist, in addition to modelling and acting.

While talking about her academic background, the actress shared an unknown and intriguing story behind her choice of higher education subject in a podcast. She studied political science for her honours and masters.

However, the decision to choose this subject was quite sudden for her. The memories of going to and from the Kala Bhavan of the faculty of arts, University of Dhaka with her mother as a child had a great influence on her choice of subject later.

Mithila said that she passed both SSC and HSC from the science department. Then, due to her family’s financial constraints, she had to decide to study at a public university or government college. Mithila said, “I studied political science. Both honours and masters.”

In Mithila’s words, “I think, subconsciously, I had a love for that place. So from there, I thought, no, okay, I will study at Dhaka University. But if I do, I will study at Kala Bhavan of the faculty of arts.

I will not study in any other department.” She said, “By science I mean maths, physics, chemistry, and these are my habits. So after going there (Kala Bhavan), when I was being told about different subjects, political science, public administration, women and gender studies, economics – I couldn’t understand anything.”

Mithila was the first generation in her family to go to university, so she had no experience to advise her on which subject to choose. In the end, when she was asked to choose political science during the admission interview, she accepted it.

According to Mithila, during the interview, she asked me, “Aren’t you a political scientist?” I said, “Okay.”
“There was science in that. But I couldn’t choose my subject knowing anything like that,” she added.