Taslima Nasrin is a Bangladeshi-Swedish author and physician, who has written many novels, columns, and books on Islam, which have been termed controversial by many Muslim fundamentalists. She was discarded by Bangladesh and West Bengal governments in India. Nasrin considers herself a secular humanist, feminist, and activist. Her compositions and write-ups are often related to that of Salman Rushdie (an Indian-born British American novelist and essayist) for contentious intentions. Taslima, in her writings and compositions, writes to support religious segregation and criticism, suppression of women, and forced exile. [1] Some of her controversial books including Lajja (Shame) 1993, Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood) 1999, Utal Hawa (Gusty Wind) 2002, and Dwikhandito 2003 are banned in India and Bangladesh for their controversial content. [2]
Wiki/Biography
Taslima Nasrin was born on Saturday, 25 August 1962 (age 59 years; as of 2021) in Mymensingh, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Her zodiac sign is Virgo. She completed high school studies in 1976 (SSC) and higher secondary studies (HSC) in 1978. She studied medicine at the Mymensingh Medical College, an affiliated medical college of the University of Dhaka. [3] She graduated in 1984 with an MBBS degree. [4] She became a doctor after completing her studies as a physician and worked in a clinic, established by her family in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. In 1990, she received the opportunity to work at a government clinic in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She practised at the gynaecology department of Mitford Hospital and at the anaesthesia department of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Bangladesh. However, in 1993, she left her medical practice. [5]
Physical Appearance
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Taslima’s father, Dr Rajab Ali, was a physician and a professor of Medical Jurisprudence at Mymensingh Medical College and at Sir Salimullah Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Her mother’s name is Edul Ara.
Husband & Children
Taslima Nasrin married thrice. Her first husband’s name was Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah, and he is a Bangladeshi poet. She got married to him in 1982 and divorced him in 1986.
Her second husband was Nayeemul Islam Khan to whom she got married in 1990 and divorced in 1991. Nayeemul Islam Khan is a media personality in Bangladesh who has been active in journalism in Bangladesh since 1982.
Minar Mahmud was Taslima’s third husband to whom she got married in 1991 and divorced in 1992.
Religion/Religious Views
In an interview with The Hindu (an Indian newspaper), Nasrin revealed her religious views when she was asked that an allegation against her was rumoured that by making statements against Islam, she was strengthening her right-wing in India. Nasrin condemned the allegations by saying that it was absolute nonsense, and she opposed other religion and religious practices including Hinduism and the rituals followed in India including Karva Chauth and Shivratri, and she wrote in favour of the films PK and Water. She requested that she should not be called a Muslim or Hindu as she considered herself an atheist. [6] She explained her religious views,
Absolute nonsense. I criticize all religions, including Hinduism. I opposed Hindu godmen, rituals such as Karva Chauth and Shivaratri, and condemned the oppression of Muslims in Gujarat. I donated Rs.10,000 to poet Shankha Ghosh, who was collecting funds for rehabilitating Gujarat riot victims. I objected to the oppression of Hindus in Bangladesh, Jews in Nazi Germany, Muslims in Bosnia, Palestine, and Christians in Pakistan. I also wrote in favor of films such as PK, Water, and The Last Temptation of Christ. Please don’t call me a Muslim, I am an atheist.”
Signature
Career
Member
Taslima Nasrin is a member of ‘Reporters Without Borders (RWB),’ an international non-profit and non-governmental organization.
Movements
The movements Nasrin is often seen involved in are mostly related to the influential issues of eugenics, women’s equality, human rights, freedom of speech, atheism, scientism, and tolerance.
Literary Works
At college in Mymensingh, Nasrin published and edited a literary magazine, Senjuti (“Light in the dark”), from 1978 to 1983. She published her first collection of poems in 1986. Her second collection, Nirbashito Bahire Ontore (“Banished within and without”), was published in 1989. Nasrin succeeded in attracting a wider readership when she started writing columns in the late 1980s. According to Taslima, the works of Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, and Begum Rokeya inspired her to become an author. She has written more than thirty poetry books, essays, novels, short stories, and memoirs, and these literary works have been translated into more than 20 different languages.
Columns and Essays
In 1989, Nasrin began contributing to the weekly political magazine Khaborer Kagoj, edited by Nayeemul Islam Khan, and published from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her columns in a volume titled Nirbachita Column won her first Ananda Purashkar in 1992; Ananda Purashkar is a prestigious award for Bengali literature. Later, she contributed a weekly essay to the Bengali version of The Statesman called Dainik Statesman. Taslima has extensively written various columns and essays in which she actively advocated for the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code. [7] Most of her columns and essays have been critical about Islam as she believes that to establish secularism in Islamic countries, criticism of Islam is necessary. [8] She used various columns and essays to raise her voice against abolishing the Triple Talaq in India and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. [9] Taslima has also written various articles for an Indian online newspaper, ‘The Print.’ [10]
Novels
Taslima’s novels have equally earned her both appreciation and criticism. She started writing novels at the beginning of the 1990s. Most of her novels talk about feminism, and she has been brutally criticized for portraying this feminism as a preconception against women. Taslima’s most successful and controversial novel Lajja (Shame) was published in 1993; in six months’ time, it sold 50,000 copies in Bangladesh before being banned by the government in the same year, and it attracted wide attention because of its controversial subject matter. Apart from Lajja, she has written many more popular novels including French Lover, which was published in the year 2002.
Autobiographies
Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood), the first volume of Nasrin’s memoir, was banned by the Bangladeshi government in 1999 for “reckless comments” against Islam and the prophet Mohammad. Utal Hawa (Wild Wind), the second part of her memoir, was banned by the Bangladesh government in 2002. In 2003, Ka (Speak up), the third part of her memoir, was banned by the Bangladeshi High Court. The book, which was published in West Bengal as Dwikhandita, was banned by the government of West Bengal, India. Sei Sob Ondhokar (Those Dark Days), the fourth part of her memoir, was banned by the Bangladesh government in 2004. A total of seven parts of her autobiography have been published so far including “Ami bhalo nei tumi bhalo theko priyo desh”, “Nei kichu nei” and “Nirbashito.”
In 2000, Nasrin received her second Ananda Purashkar for her memoir Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood, published in English in 2002).
Poetries
• 1982- Shikore Bipul Khudha (Hunger in the Roots)
• 1989- Nirbashito Bahire Ontore (Banished Without and Within)
• 1990- Amar Kichu Jay Ashe Ne (I Couldn’t Care Less)
• 1991- Atole Ontorin (Captive in the Abyss)
• 1992- Balikar Gollachut (Game of the Girls)
• 1993- Behula Eka Bhashiyechilo Bhela (Behula Floated the Raft Alone)
• 1996- Ay Kosto Jhepe, Jibon Debo Mepe (Pain Come Roaring Down, I’ll Measure Out My Life for You)
• 1996- Nirbashito Narir Kobita (Poems From Exile)
• 2000- Jolpodyo (Waterlilies)
• 2004- Khali Khali Lage (Feeling Empty)
• 2005- Kicchukhan Thako (Stay for a While)
• 2007- Bhalobaso? Cchai baso (It’s your love! or a heap of trash!)
• 2008- Bondini (Prisoner)
• 2018- Golpo(stories)
Nasrin’s Works in Adaptation
To applaud the initiatives taken by Nasrin for raising her voice for women and human rights all over the world, in 1994, the Swedish singer Magoria sang the “Goddess in you, Taslima” song for her. In 2013, the French band Zebda composed “Don’t worry, Taslima” as a homage to her. In 2006, Jhumur, an Indian Bengali series, was written by Taslima Nasrin. Bengali singers like Fakir Alamgir, Samina Nabi, Rakhi Sen sang her songs to support and back her spirit. Steve Lacy, the jazz soprano saxophonist, met Nasrin in 1996 and collaborated with her on an adaptation of her poetry to music, and a “controversial” and “compelling” work called ‘The Cry,’ was performed in Europe and North America by Steve Lacy in 1988.
Life amid Evictions
Since 1994, Taslima Nasrin has been living in exile. For more than a decade, she lived in Sweden, Germany, France, and the United States, and she moved to India in 2004. Nasrin waited for six years from 1994 to 1999 to get an Indian visa. During her stay in India, Nasrin was assaulted by her opponents when she went to Hyderabad to deliver a speech on the Telugu translation of one of her novels, Shodh. This protest was led by legislators from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (an Indian Muslim political party) and consequently, she was forced to live under house arrest in Kolkata. In Hyderabad, Taslima was attacked by three MLAs and party members named- Mohammed Muqtada Khan, Mohammed Moazzam Khan, and Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri, when she released her book that was translated from her Telugu writings. In November 2007, she was forced to leave West Bengal Kolkata, when the state witnessed a violent protest against Nasrin by Muslims. This protest was organized by the militant Islamist “All India Minority Forum,” which caused chaos in the city. The Local government of West Bengal deployed Indian Army personnel to restore order, and Nasrin was compelled to live under house arrest for three months in Delhi by the government of India.
On 21 November 2007, she moved to Jaipur, and the following day, she moved to New Delhi. A mob demanding the deportation of Taslima Nasrin upraised the riots against Taslima in Kolkata. During a media interaction, while talking about these riots, Taslima said,
I was seeing and observing everything. Hindus were being targeted. Their shops were being broken down by mad crowds of people and so many Hindu patients were in hospitals telling their horror stories. I visited many places to see what was happening. I gave shelter to some of the Hindus. I just thought that nobody should be oppressed or tortured because of some buildings being destroyed. It was not the fault of Bangladeshi Hindus.”
During this tense situation in 2007, Nasrin was supported and defended by Mahasweta Devi (an Indian writer and activist). Theatre director Bibhas Chakrabarty, poet Joy Goswami, artist Prakash Karmakar, and Paritosh Sen (a leading Indian artist) also supported Talisma for her writings. Kabir Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi writer-philosopher, supported her with great fervor.
Nasrin bore the brunt of the Indian religious fundamentalists when she criticized Islam in her writings. Syed Mohammad Noor ur Rahman Barkati, the imam of Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan Mosque, offered money to “blacken” Ms Nasrin’s face to anyone from the general public. In 2007, her writings put her in the worst of these bad circumstances when the president of “All India Muslim Personal Board (Jadeed),” Tauqueer Raza Khan, offered INR 5 Lakh for Nasrin’s beheading. [11] Although, later, he announced publically that this reward would be uplifted if Nasrin would apologize to the Muslim community and burns her books and writings. In 2007, in an interview, Nasrin said that she was forced to flee from Bangladesh; therefore, she called Kolkata, India her home. She was allowed to live in India on a periodic basis by the government of India as the Indian government refused to grant her permanent citizenship. During her stay in India after 2007, Nasrin regularly wrote for various Indian newspapers and renowned magazines including ‘Anandbazar Patrika’ and ‘Desh.’ She came up with many column writings for the Bengali version of ‘The Statesman.’ In 2007, when Nasrin was under house arrest in Delhi, the renowned and prominent writers Arundhati Roy and Girish Karnad defended Nasrin and appealed to the Indian Government through a written and signed letter to provide Nasrin permanent residency and citizenship in India. [12] Nasrin now lives in New Delhi, India on a long-term residence permit, multiple-entry, or ‘X’ visa as she has been unable to return either to her adopted home in West Bengal or her home in Bangladesh. [13] [14] In 2008, in an email interview, while Nasrin was house arrest in New Delhi, she replied to the answers and said that she was under heavy stress and was living in loneliness, uncertainty, and deathly silence. In the same year, when she had no other alternative left except to live in exile, she was finally deported from India.
Controversial Novel “Lajja”
In 1993, Taslima Nasrin published and released her novel ‘Lajja’ globally, and the controversial statements in the book disturbed her life to a large extent. Lajja, translated as ‘Shame,’ was a written protest against the violence on women and the emerging fights between different religious sections of Bangladesh. Lajja focussed and raised the incidence of the slaughter of Hindus, following the demolition of Babri Masjid in India. It stressed the split and partition of religious, social, and economic lines in Bangladeshi society as a whole. Many protests, unrest situations, and violent campaigns were driven against her in Bangladesh and in India. Severe violence between the Hindus and Muslim communities of India and Bangladesh prevailed the tense situations in both countries. In 1997, Lajja was published in English as “Shame.” In its narration, Taslima described the fate and destiny of a small Hindu community family in Bangladesh. This novel angered the Muslim community leaders in India and Bangladesh. The anger in Muslims was so severe that it led to declare a ‘fatwa’ against Taslima Nasrin that offered thousands of dollars to anyone who would kill Nasrin for writing such a novel against Islamic rules. According to Muslim Fundamentals in Bangladesh, Lajja plots the conspiracy against the Muslim community and the Bangladesh government booked her for committing a sin to write against Qoran. [15]
Novel “Shodh”
Marathi author Ashok Shahane translated ‘Shodh’ a novel written by Nasrin. This translated book was called ‘Phitam Phat.’ In 2000, after the publication of the novel Shodh, Nasrin promoted the book in Mumbai, India. Some secular atheist groups in India celebrated the inauguration of this book and called it freedom of expression, whereas the fundamental groups threatened to burn her alive. [16]
Novel “Ka”
Nasrin was condemned by various writers and intellectuals in both Bangladesh and West Bengal for targeted scandalization. In 2013, Syed Shamsul Haq, the Bangladeshi poet-novelist, filed a defamation case against Nasrin for “obnoxious, false and ludicrous” comments in Ka (a novel written by Taslima) in Bangladesh High Court. He stated that this novel was written with the intention to harm his reputation. In this novel, Nasrin mentioned that Syed revealed to Nasrin that he had a relationship with his sister-in-law.
The book ‘Dwikhondito’
Dwikhondito, a book written by Taslima, raised controversy in Kolkata and created riot issues in the state in 2003. [17] In the same year, in West Bengal High Court, Hasmat Jalal, a West Bengali poet, filed a defamation case against Nasrin for her book ‘Dwikhondito,’ and demanded 4 million dollars from Nasrin as compensation. Around the same time, more than 24 literary intellectuals in India filed petitions in the Calcutta High Court to ban this book. Nasrin, in her clarification, said that she wrote about the people who were known to her and defended herself against all allegations and blames. She denied the rumours that she wrote the book merely for publicity and fame. She said that She said that she wrote the book to reveal her sexual activities, and it is her life story narrated in the book, not others.’ Annada Shankar Ray, Sibnarayan Ray, and Amlan Dutta, the renowned Bengali writers and intellectuals, supported Nasrin on this controversy. Under pressure, Nasrin deleted some paragraphs from ‘Dwikhandito.’ Later, she cancelled the sixth edition of her autobiography ‘Nei Kichu Nei’ (“No Entity”).
Memoir ‘My Girlhood’
In the memoir ‘My Girlhood,’ Taslima Nasrin narrated the story that what happened when her brother married a Hindu woman. This book included the real-life events and situations faced by Nasrin from her birth to the dawn of womanhood. This book featured the scenes of the rise of religious fundamentalism in Bangladesh, the violence she faced in childhood, the trauma she went through because of molestation she faced in girlhood, and the memories of her pious mother that redefined and changed her world.
The book ‘Nirbasan’
In 2014, Nasrin’s book ‘Nirbasan’ was cancelled at the ’36 Kolkata Book Fair,’ and it happened after a year of its launch. She stated in an interview that she had tweeted to announce it publically to buy this book to those who wanted to buy it as the Kolkata government would ban it, and her freedom of expression would be buried. [18] She said,
The situation in West Bengal is exactly like Bangladesh. Bengal government has also made me a persona non grata as they are not allowing me to enter, banning my books besides the TV drama series scripted by me. They are not allowing me to participate in the ongoing Kolkata Book Fair. It happened during the CPM regime and I thought the situation would change when Mamata Banerjee comes to power but that did not happen.”
She further commented,
I am so apprehensive about it that I tweeted that those who want to buy it, buy early. They are banning my books or release of my books which is the real death of a writer. They have done it in 2012 and can again do it. If it continues like this, then Bengal will be like another Bangladesh or Pakistan where there is almost no freedom of expression for those who have different opinions.”
She concluded her statement and said,
It is strange that I have been writing on women’s issues for the last three decades but three women (Sheikh) Hasina, Khalida (Zia), and Mamata (Banerjee) have made my life difficult. There is no hope for Bangladesh. And I miss Kolkata because culturally I connect with the city. But I have now given up all hopes of returning to the city.”
An anti-war poem titled ‘America’
In 2005, Nasrin was thrown off the stage when she read an anti-war poem titled ‘America’ in front of a large Bengali crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Controversies
Sexual Relations Outside Marriage and Comments on Islam
Taslima Nasrin landed in various controversies several times in the past. One of the main reasons behind these controversies was her comments on Islam. The other is about her sexual life. Taslima was married thrice. Her first marriage was in the 1980s and the next two marriages were between 1990 and 1992. There have been a lot of controversies regarding her sexual partners and her sexual relations outside marriage. Reportedly, Taslima Nasrin had a relationship with George Baker who belongs to a Greek family in Assam, India. Baker worked in several Bengali and Hindi films along with theatre and television in India. In 2014, Baker joined politics and contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Howrah constituency in West Bengal, but lost. Later, the then President of India appointed him to the Lok Sabha as an Anglo-Indian. In October 2019, Ankita Bhattacharya, daughter of George, who is a resident of Burdwan’s Narayanpur village under the Bhatar police station, claimed that Talisma Nasrin was her mother. She revealed her childhood photographs with Taslima Nasrin as proof and the related information about her birth. [19]
Comments on Cricketer Moeen Ali
On 14th April 2021, Taslima created controversy all around the world by posting about England cricketer Moeen Ali on her Twitter account. She Commented on cricketer Moeen Ali and wrote that if Moeen Ali were not stuck with cricket, he would have gone to Syria to join ISIS. [20] Around the same time, Moeen’s England teammates and cricketers re-tweeted Taslima’s tweet, and in one of the comments, the cricketer Jofra Archer took the side of Moeen and wrote,
Are you okay? I don’t think you’re okay. Sarcastic? No one is laughing, not even yourself, the least you can do is delete the tweet.”
England cricketer and fast bowler Saqib Mahmood penned,
Can’t believe this. Disgusting tweet. Disgusting individual.”
Tweets on Surrogacy
In January 2022, Taslima Nasreen, in a series of tweets, expressed her opinion on the process of surrogacy. Through her tweets, Taslima questioned the feelings of those women who become mothers of readymade babies. She tweeted,
How do those mothers feel when they get their readymade babies through surrogacy? Do they have the same feelings for the babies like the mothers who give birth to the babies?”
While claiming that those women who opt for surrogacy have a selfish narcissistic ego, Taslima tweeted,
Surrogacy is possible because there are poor women. Rich people always want the existence of poverty in the society for their own interests. If you badly need to raise a child, adopt a homeless one. Children must inherit your traits—it is just a selfish narcissistic ego.”
Soon after her tweets, netizens started condemning her views on social media as her tweets came in the wake of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas welcoming their first child through surrogacy. [21]
Awards, Honours, Achievements
1992
- Ananda Award or Ananda Puraskar from West Bengal, India in 1992 and in 2000 for “Nirbachita Kolam” and “Amar Meyebela”
1994
- Sakharov Prize for freedom of thoughts from European Parliament
- Human Rights Award from the Government of France
- Edict of Nantes Prize from France
- Feminist of the Year from Feminist Majority Foundation, US
- Kurt Tucholsky Prize, Swedish PEN, Sweden
1995
- Scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service, Germany
1996
- Distinguished Humanist Award from International Humanist and Ethical Union, Great Britain
2002
- Erwin Fischer Award, International League of non-religious and atheists (IBKA), Germany
- Freethought Heroine Award, Freedom From Religion Foundation, US
2003
- Fellowship at Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, US
2004
- UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence
2005
- Honorary doctorate from American University of Paris
- Grand Prix International Condorcet-Aron
2008
- Simone de Beauvoir Prize
2009
- Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, US
- Feminist Press award, US
2011
- Honorary doctorate from Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
- Honorary citizenship from Esch, Luxembourg
- Honorary citizenship from Metz, France
- Honorary citizenship from Thionville, France
- Honorary doctorate from Paris Diderot University, Paris, France, 201
2012
- Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society
2013
- Universal Citizenship Passport. From Paris, France
- Academy Award from the Royal Academy of Arts, Science and Literature, Belgium
Favourits
- Food: Fish, ‘muri’ (puffed rice), and ‘mishti’ (sweets)
- Game(s): Chess, Cricket
- Cricketer: Shakib Al Hasan
- Poet: Rabindranath Tagore
- Singer(s): Britney Spears, Michael Jackson
- Travel Destination(s): The United States, Coxbazar (Bangladesh), and India
- Perfume: JAR Bolt of Lightning
- Colour(s): Black, White, Red
- Author: Humayun Ahmed
- Painter: Zainul Abedin
- Novel: Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Facts/Trivia
- Taslima Nasrin follows a non-vegetarian diet. [22]
- Nasrin was born into a Muslim family; however, she became an atheist over time. [23]
- A poetry journal called Shenjuti was written and edited by Nasrin while she was studying at college in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She took a feminist approach in the course of writing the columns and journals. She inclined towards feminism when she saw the girls who were raped and abandoned by their families in the hospital in which she was working after completing her MBBS; she was deeply devastated by the crying voices of the abandoned women who delivered baby girls in the operation theatres of the hospital.
- In 1994, Nasrin lived in Paris during her eviction period and met French President Francois Mitterrand. He said that he respected her work.
- Nasrin wrote Meyebela, My Bengali Girlhood, her biographical account since her birth to adolescence in 1998.
- In 2005, Nasrin pledged her body to India and donated it for posthumous medical use to a Kolkata-based NGO, Gana Darpan. [24]
- In January 2008, Nasrin was selected to receive the Simone de Beauvoir award for her writings on women’s rights; however, she denied going to Paris to receive the award. The reason to deny the award was explained by her in an interview. She said she wanted to fight for her rights and freedom while living in India, and she did not want to leave India.
- In 2008, the house arrest of Nasrin at New Delhi became a piece of international news following which the then foreign secretary of India Muchkund Dubey, in a written letter, appealed to Amnesty International, a London-based human rights organization, to request the Government of India to return Nasrin safely to Kolkata.
- In 2008, during her house arrest in New Delhi, Nasrin said that she was writing a lot but not about Islam. She said,
I’m writing a lot, but not about Islam, It’s not my subject now. This is about politics. In the last three months, I have been put under severe pressure to leave [West] Bengal by the police.”
- In 2008, Nasrin worked as a research scholar at New York University.
- In an interview in 2012, Nasrin said that Islam was not compatible with women’s rights, human rights, secularism, and democracy. She added that the Muslims and all Islamic extremists all around the world hate her. She stated that the Muslim fundamentals did not like that she was fighting for women’s rights all over the world.
- In 2012, Taslima Nasrin actively participated in the protest against violence against women during the Nirbhaya Delhi Gang rape case.
- In 2014, in an interview with a newspaper in India, Nasrin said that there should be an ‘Aam Aurat Party’ to fight for women-related issues and which would work for the upliftment of women globally. She said,
It will be good if Aam Aadmi Party can bring changes but I think there should be an Aam Aurat Party also to fight against issues like rape, domestic violence, hatred against women and men can also be a part of it.”
- In 2014, while talking to a media person in an interview, Nasrin said that she felt that she was a victim of vote bank politics in India. [25] She narrated,
Fundamentalists are after me but the West Bengal government did not support me either. They did all this to woo Muslim voters. This vote bank politics is not good for a society or country. There should be healthy democracy.”
- In 2015, Al Qaeda-linked extremists issued death threats to Nasrin. On 27 May 2015, she reached the United States, where the Center for Inquiry (a US nonprofit organization) came to her help. Later, the Center for Inquiry (CFI) officially declared that this assistance was temporary, and if Nasrin could not reside in the United States, they would provide her food, housing, and safety, wherever she would live.
- In 2015, Taslima Nasrin said in a newspaper interview that she lived in exile in India, and in the future, she would not be silenced by fundamentalists. She further stated that she would continue to fight against fundamentalists and protest against them as a woman. She further said that she would raise her voice against all evil forces until her death. [26] She said,
I think fundamentalists may want to kill me, but I want to protest against them. If I stop writing, it means they will win and I will be defeated. I don’t want to do that. I won’t be silenced. I will continue to fight against fundamentalists, evil forces until my death.”
- On 8 July 2016, Tariq Bukhari, General Secretary of the Muslim Majlis-e-Amal organization denied a debate on NDTV with Taslima Nasrin. Tariq walked out and refused to share the podium with the exiled Bangladeshi writer on the show ‘The Big Fight’ on NDTV.
- Taslima often shares pictures of her young age, when she was in Dhaka, on her social media accounts.
- Taslima is an animal lover. She loves her pet cat and often posts pictures of the cat on her social media account.
- In 2016, reportedly, Nasrin received a one-year extension on her Indian visa; however, Nasrin is also seeking permanent residency in India but no decision has been taken on it by the Home Ministry of India. ((Indian Express)
- In 2017, Taslima gave an interview to an Indian News channel and said that women should fight for their rights, and she was always standing against the cruelty of patriarchy and the triple talaq system in Islam.
- On 11 October 2018, in an exclusive interview with an Indian News Channel, Taslima Nasrin revealed her life incidents and experiences of sexual harassment and misconduct during her teenage. She was seen supporting the Me Too Movement in India in 2018.
- On 9th July 2019, Taslima Nasrin shared her excitement on her Twitter handle and wrote that she completed 25 years of exile life.
- In 2020, on the demise of Bollywood actor Shushant Singh Rajput, Nasrin claimed nepotism was not the reason behind the suicide of Shushant, and he should not have discontinued the prescribed medicines for his clinical depression. She wrote,
I don’t think nepotism was the reason for Sushant’s suicide. He was a talented actor, & signed many movies. He should not have discontinued prescribed medicines for his clinical depression.”
- In May 2021, Taslima got infected with the COVID-19; she took to Twitter to reveal this.
Misfortune had always found its way with me. If I start listing everything that has happened with me, all those things which weren’t supposed to, then the list would be so long no one would find an end to it! For now, let Covid-19 be the only tragedy.”
References
- 1 ↑ Britannica
- 2 ↑ Times of India
- 3 ↑ Taslima Nasrin’s Facebook account
- 4 ↑ India TV News
- 5 ↑ Britannica
- 6 ↑ The Hindu
- 7 ↑ The Times of India
- 8 ↑ Indian Express
- 9 ↑ The Times of India
- 10 ↑ The Print
- 11 ↑ PGURUS
- 12 ↑ Mainstream
- 13 ↑ Hindustan Times
- 14 ↑ The Times of India
- 15 ↑ Scroll
- 16 ↑ Web archive
- 17 ↑ Frontline The Hindu
- 18 ↑ The Hindu
- 19 ↑ Kolkata 24×7
- 20 ↑ Deccan Herald
- 21 ↑ Hindustan Times
- 22 ↑ Taslima Nasrin’s Twitter Account
- 23 ↑ The Hindu
- 24 ↑ Times of India
- 25 ↑ The Hindu
- 26 ↑ The New Indian Express