From the Dark Ages - The Exile of Taslima Nasreen

Via the BBC,

“Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has arrived in Europe to begin a new life, reports say, after protests by Muslim groups forced her into hiding in India. “She has landed safely somewhere in Europe,” a spokeswoman for the writers’ group, Pen, told the BBC, adding that her exact location could not be given. Ms Nasreen said earlier this week that her health had suffered as a result of spending time in hiding. She fled her native Bangladesh in 1994 when her book attracted death threats. After spending several years in Sweden, she moved to Calcutta, an Indian city close to Bangladesh where Ms Nasreen’s mother tongue of Bengali is spoken. She was moved from the city last November after Muslim groups staged violent protests, accusing her of having insulted Islam. Property was damaged in the riots and at least 43 people were hurt. Ms Nasreen has since lived in secret locations in the Indian capital, Delhi. Earlier this week, she said she was preparing to leave India as her confinement had damaged her health. She also accused the Indian authorities of encouraging her to leave the country.”

Ah yes, let’s all remember that Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance and equality between the sexes. What has Taslima Nasreen done?

“Ms Nasreen rose to prominence in 1993 after her first book, entitled Lajja, or Shame, angered some of the country’s Muslims. The book argued that Bangladeshis had mistreated the country’s Hindu minority. A more recent novel by Ms Nasreen, Dwikhondito or Split in Two, was accused by some Muslim groups of causing offence to Islam.”

It is Salman Rushdie + sexism. The case of Tasliman Nasreen was big in Europe in the mid-1990s. She became the symbol of religious oppression as religious fundamentalist movements were becoming more visible and prominent on the global stage. And it is certainly her novella Lajja (”Shame”) that brought her the wrath of the fundamentalist crowds in Bangladesh. Taslima Nasreen is an Ob-GYN, so, she got to see first hand the damage done to women but the book got her not just death threats from religious groups but the book was banned by the government; she was charged with blasphemy and an arrest warrant was issued against her, which is when she had to leave. She ultimately went back and made bail, then, went into exile. She lived in Stockholm until 2004, then in Calcutta. Now, she is back in Europe.

Let me quote Taslima in her own words:

“I ask myself: what heinous crime have I committed? What sort of life is this where I can neither cross my own threshold nor know the joys of human company? What crime have I committed that I have to spend my life hidden away, relegated to the shadows? For what crimes am I being punished by this society, this land? I wrote of my beliefs and my convictions. I used words, not violence, to express my ideas. I did not take recourse to pelting stones or bloodshed to make my point. Yet, I am considered a criminal. I am being persecuted because it was felt that the right of others to express their opinions was more legitimate than mine.”

I hope that, wherever she is, she is free to walk around and have friends to support her. And let us not tolerate any nonsense regarding the supposed peaceful nature of Islam and how it is Taslima Nasreen that has shown hatred. She is the one who has to hide for fear that religious nuts will kill her.