Taslima Nasrin

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Taslima Nasrin

Taslima Nasrin (Template:Lang-bn), also spelled Taslima Nasreen and populalrly refrerred to as 'Taslima', her first name rather than 'Nasreen' (born 25 August 1962 in Mymensingh, Bangladesh) is a Bengali Bangladeshi author, feminist human rights activist and secular humanist exiled in Calcutta, India. She worked as a government physician until 1994. From a modest literary profile in early 1990s she achieved a meteoric rise to global fame by the turn of the twentieth century. She was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1994 and an Humanist Award (from the International Humanist and Ethical Union) in 1996. Since 1993, Taslima has faced several death threats from Islamic fundamentalists for her blatant criticism of Islam, the Holy Quran and prophet Muhammad (pbuh). In March 2007, an Indian Islamist group offered a bounty of 500,000 rupees for her beheading.. Recently, while attending a literary funciton in Hyderabad, India she was attacked by a group of Islamic activists. In September 2007, movement has been initiated in West Bengal demanding expulsion of Taslima from India. The government of India is considering her appeal for Indian citizenship.

Biography

Taslima Nasrin was born in Mymensingh town, situated in the north of Bangladesh. Though born into a Muslim family, Taslima, towards the end of 1990s, claimed that she had become an atheist. Her father was a physician and a professor at the Mymensingh Medical College (MMC). After attending Vidyamoyee Girls' High School for SSC and Muminunnisa Women's College for HSC, she studied medicine and recieved her MBBS degree in 1985 from the Mymensingh Medical College. Since then she served as a government physician in different hospitals of the country. Before she chose to leave Bangladesh in 1994, in the face vehement protst throughout the country and a warrant of arrest consequent upon a court case, she had been serving as an anesthesiologist at the Mitford Hospital, Dhaka.

Taslima's extra-medical career started in late seventies when she started to write poetry. However, she came into limelight when she started to write newspaper columns. While speaking in favour of equal rights for women she started to make critical remarks about social restrictions imposed by Islam on women. In one of her early fictional works titled Lajja, she focused on oppression of Hindus in Bangladesh. In her five volume autobiography, Taslima mentioned that she was sexually abused by her relatives and other acquaints in her early years. These incidents had a strong influence on her later life to become a staunch feminist.

While in the 1980s Taslima was renowned in the literary circle of the country for erotic elements in her poetry, she successfully drew attention of wider readership as a newspaper columnist since late eighties. However, later she gradually became familiar for being a courageous woman through a series of books that she wrote. Some of her critics believe that part of the reasons of Taslima Nasrin's popularity is because of her critical views on religions, especially Islam.

In March 2006, a letter she co-signed entitled MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism with eleven other individuals (most notably Salman Rushdie) was published in response to violent and deadly protests in the Islamic world surrounding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.

Personal Life

While her writings project her as a staunch feminist, Taslima has never denied the need for man in her personal life. In fact, Taslima earned infame for leading a promiscuous life. Notably, she has entered into wedlock with a number of guys including poet Rudra Muhammad Shahidullah, journalist Naimul Islam Khan, journalist Meenar Mahmud, among others. She has lived together with a number of boy friends. In her autobiographical books she has informed the readers of numerous sexual relationship with different people, including lesbians. She was unabashed in informing that lesbian sex gave her orgasm but she could not satisfy her partners because of her rigid tongue which was not as active as necessary. "A girl's tongue plays a critical role in lesbian sex while mine one is lazy", she observed. Currently, she lives with young poet Shomitava in her Rowdon Street apartment in Calcutta.

Criticisms, censorship and attacks

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Taslima Nasrin

In 1993 , sparked by a series of newspaper columns in which she was critical of the treatment of women under Islam, Islamic fundamentalists issued a fatwa and offering a bounty for her death.

Later, the government banned her novella Lajja, (a Bangla word meaning shame), which drew attention to the torture of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh. This brought more calls for her death, and her passport was confiscated by the government.

In 1994, organized groups albeit of little social clout identified with Islamic fundamentalists demanded her execution after she was quoted in The Statesman stating that "…the Koran should be revised thoroughly." While the government of the day did not take any action against those who had issued threats, a case was filed in the court of law against Taslima charging her with blasphemy. Consequently, an arrest warrant was issued and Taslima went into hiding to avoid the arrest. After two months she surrendered to a higher court, sought bail and left the country to exile after bail was granted, seemingly with tacit support of the then government.

In the same year, Nasrin received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament, and other awards. Taslima is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. Her books have so far been translated into twenty different languages.

Taslima's four autobiographical volumes have been banned in Bangladesh. The government has claimed that they "contain anti-Islamic sentiments and statements that could destroy the religious harmony of Bangladesh". However, the fifth volume published in 2006 has not been banned as yet.

In November 2003, the West Bengal government in India banned the sale, distribution and collection of Taslima's Dwikhandito, the 3rd part of her autobiography. The ban was lifted by the High Court in September 2004.

In 2004, Syed Noorur Rehaman Barkati, the Islamic head priest of Calcutta's Tipu Sultan mosque, admitted offering money to anyone who "blackened" Taslima's face. He also accused her of being a "Jewish spy". Later that year.

In 2005 her attempt to read an anti-war poem entitled "America" to a large Bengali crowd attending the North American Bengali Conference at Madison Square Garden resulted in her being booed off the stage. It is irony that apparently a feminist, Taslima has little favourable reputation among the womenfolk of her country, Bangladesh.

As of 2007, Taslima has been living in exile for more than 13 years. Still a citizen of Bangladesh, the government has not been seen to have taken the necessary steps to help her return to the country. She is currently living in Calcutta, India, in an apartment on Rowdon Street, on the basis of periodic visa given by the Indian government. She has requested the Indian government to grant her Indian citizenship.

In March 2007, the "All India Ittehad Millat Council" of Bareilly U.P awarded 500,000 rupees for her beheading. The group's president, Tauqir Raza Khan, said the only way the bounty would be lifted was if Nasreen "apologises, burns her books and leaves."

On August 9, 2007, Taslima was attacked at the Hyderabad Press Club in the state of Andhra Pradesh. She was there for the launch of her book Shodh in the Telugu language. Three MLAs of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party were among those who physically attacked her with bouquets, flower pots and chairs for criticizing Islam. Akbaruddin Owaisi, also an MLA and MIM Floor leader in the Assembly, justified the attacks by saying, "We are not bothered about our MLA status. We are Muslims first. And its our responsibility to test those who have said anything against Islam in which ever way possible." Taslim, who backed into a corner, said the attack was barbaric but pledged she would not be cowed down by the bigots who were mereely a minority. The Internal Affairs bureau minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi condemned the incident, saying, "It's a very shameful thing if any person is attacked. We criticise this incident in the strongest of terms."

Politics of Taslima Nasrin

It is often alleged that the relevance of Taslima thrives on the global politics around her anti-Islamic propaganda. It is complained that she is being used by the anti-Islamic forces around the world who seek to utilize her criticism of Islam, the Quran and prophet Muhammad to demean Islam and for portraying Islam as anti-women.

Literary Achievements

While Taslima Nasrin emerged as the most widely globally known Bengali woman of the twentieth century, her literary achievements remain debatable. She started her literary career as a poet and still writes wonderful romantic lyrics that appeal to Bengali mind. However, in fiction, her prose has come under vehement criticism for weak storyline as well as rickety construction. Her essays are bold but seldom shine with flicker of original thoughts. She has been charged with plagiarism in her criticism of Islam which she admitted to in an autobiographical account. She admitted that she borrowd from the PhD dissertation of Sukumary Bhattacharya. While her anti-Islamic standpoint is clear, her true philosophical ideology remain to be articulated. People doubt whether her writings have done anything at all in advancing the causes of women freedom. In Bangladesh, her acceptability as a women lib activists has been grossly eroded by her promiscuous sexual life. While she continues to write zeal for her clearly ebbed down in the recent time, refelcted in low sale of her recent books. While admitting the global popularity of Taslima, literary pundits do not find a lasting place for her in the history of Bengali literature. Even in poetry, which is her natural domain, she is classified merely as a good second rate poet.

Books by Taslima Nasrin

Poetry

• The Game in Reverse: Poems and Essays by Taslima Nasrin 1995
• Shikore Bipul Khudha (Hunger in the Roots), 1986
• Nirbashito Bahire Ontore (Banished Without and Within ), 1989
• Amar Kichu Jay Ashe Ne (I Couldn’t Care Less), 1990
• Atole Ontorin (Captive In the Abyss), 1991
• Balikar Gollachut (Game of the Girls), 1992
• Behula Eka Bhashiyechilo Bhela (Behula Floated the Raft Alone), 1993
• Ay Kosto Jhepe, Jibon Debo Mepe (Pain Come Roaring Down, I’ll Measure Out My Life for You), 1994
• Nirbashito Narir Kobita (Poems From Exile), 1996
• Jolopodyo (Waterlilies), 2000
• Khali Khali Lage (Feeling Empty), 2004
• Kicchukhan Thako( Stay For A While), 2005

Essay collections

• Nirbachito column (Selected Columns)
• Jabo na Keno jabo (I will not go; why should I?)
• Noshto meyer noshto goddo (Corrupt prose of a corrupt girl)
• ChoTo choTo dukkho kotha (Tale of trivial sorrows)

Novels

• Oporpokkho (The Opponenet) 1992
• Shodh (Revenge), 1992 (ISBN 978-8188575053)
• Nimontron (Invitation) 1993
• Phera (Return) 1993
• Bhromor Koio Gia (Tell Him The Secret) 1994
• Forashi Premik (French Lover) 2002
• Lajja (Shame), (ISBN 978-0140240511)

Autobiography

• Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood), 1999
• Utal Hawa (Wild Wind), 2002
• Ka (Speak Up), 2003
• Dwikhondito (Split-up in Two), 2003
• Sei Sob Andhokar (All those darkness), 2004
• Meyebela, My Bengali Girlhood - A Memoir of Growing Up Female in a Muslim World, 2002 (ISBN 1-58642-051-8)
• Ami Bhalo Nei, Tumi Bhalo Theko Priyo Desh (I am not pkay, but you stay Well my beloved homeland), 2006.

Awards

• Ananda Award, India, 1992
• Natyasava Award, Bangladesh, 1992
• Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thoughts from the European Parliament, 1994
• Human Rights Award from the Government of France, 1994
• Kurt Tucholsky Prize, Swedish PEN, Sweden, 1994
• Hellman-Hammett Grant from Human Rights Watch, USA, 1994
• Humanist Award from Human-Etisk Forbund, Norway, 1994
• Feminist of the Year from Feminist Majority Foundation, USA, 1994
• Honorary Doctorate from Ghent University, Belgium, 1995
• Scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service, Germany, 1995
• Monismanien Prize from Uppsala University, Sweden, 1995
• Distinguished Humanist Award from International Humanist and Ethical Union, Great Britain, 1996
• Humanist Laureate from International Academy for Humanism, USA, 1996
• Ananda Award, India, 2000
• Global Leader for Tomorrow, World Economic Forum, 2000
• Erwin Fischer Award, International League of non-religious and atheists (IBKA), Germany, 2002
• Free-thought Heroine Award, Freedom From Religion Foundation, USA, 2002
• Fellowship at Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA, 2003
• UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence, 2004
• Honorary Doctorate from American University of Paris, France, 2005
• Grand Prix International Condorcet-Aron 2005, from the French-Parliament in Belgium, 2005

See also

• Women in Muslim societies
• Criticism of Islam
• Apostasy in Islam
• List of notable former Muslims

References

Taslima Nasreen and Others, a colleciton of poems by women poets of Bangladesh compiled by Faizul Latif Chowdhury, 1999, Dibya Prokash, Dhaka.

External links

• online petition to defend her
• Taslima Nasrin: Gone with the wind!
• Taslima Nasreen:No Woman,No Cry
• Taslima Nasrin's homepage
• Taslima Nasrin: "Are These Stones Not Striking You?"
• For freedom of expression - by Taslima Nasrin
• Bulletin # 102 - Rationalist International
• Bangladeshi Writer Wins UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize - IFEX
• Irshad Manji's interview with Taslima Nasrin
• ISIS interview with Taslima Nasrin
• Profile: Taslima Nasrin
• 'Islam is history', says Taslima
• Karan Thapar interviews Taslima Nasrin in Devil's Advocate