Taslima Nasrin
From Freepedia
Taslima Nasrin (Bangla: তসলিমা নাসরিন), also known as Taslima Nasreen, (born 25 August 1962 in Mymensingh, Bangladesh) is a writer.
Taslima Nasrin stands up for equal rights for women and opposes the oppression of non-Islamic minorities in Islamic societies, such as in her home country Bangladesh. She is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.
In 1993, sparked by a series of newspaper columns in which she was critical of the treatment of women under Islam, Islamic fundamentalists pronounced a fatwa against her and put a price on her head. The next year she wrote Lajja (a Bangla word meaning Shame) which described the abuse of women and minorities. Again there were calls for her death and her passport was confiscated. She was forced to leave the country. Within the legal system of her native country she feels that she may have faced a jail term of up to two years, but it is very likely that she might have been murdered within the jail. In the same year she received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Nasrin once again raised the ire of officials in her native Bangladesh with her new book Utal Hawa Pol (Wild Wind). The government has called for her arrest and banned the publication, sale, distribution and collection of the novel. The Home Ministry claims that it "contains anti-Islam sentiments and statements that could destroy the religious harmony of Bangladesh".
In November 2003, a Bangladesh and {India]] government banned the sale or distribution of Nasreen's latest book, "Ka" and "Dikhondito", an account of Nasreen's relationships with Bangladeshi and Indian intellectuals, in response to a defamation suit filed by both Bangladeshi and Indian writers.
In February 2005, Nasreen, who has been living in exile in Sweden, appiled for Indian citizenship to live in West Bengal which was rejected.
In 2005 her attempt to read an anti-war poem entitled "America" to a large Bengali crowd at Madison Square Garden resulted in her being booed off the stage.
Contents |
Books by Taslima Nasrin
Essay Collections
- Nirbachito column (Selected Columns)
- Jabo na keno jabo (Why shouldn't I go, I will)
- Noshto meyer noshto goddo (Impure prose from an impure girl)
Novels
- Opprpokkho (Opposition) 1992
- Shodh (Revenge) 1992
- Nimontron (Invitation) 1993
- Phera (Return) 1993
- Bhromor Koio Gia (Tell Him The Secret) 1994
- Forashi Premik (French Lover) 2002
Others
- Meyebela: My Bengali Girlhood - A Memoir of Growing Up Female in a Muslim World ISBN 1586420518
- The Game in Reverse: Poems and Essays by Taslima Nasrin
- Utal Hawa Pol
External links
- Taslima Nasrin's homepage
- Taslima Nasrin: "Are These Stones Not Striking You?"
- For freedom of expression - by Taslima Nasrin
- Bulletin # 102 - Rationalist International
- UNESCO Confers Madanjeet Singh Prize on Nasrin, 2004 - IFEX
