"Bangladesh government should be ashamed" – Taslima Nasrin

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
August 29, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1732/bangladesh-government-should-be-ashamed-taslima

Taslima Nasrin, an award-wining writer and human rights activist, is known for her powerful writings on women oppression and unflinching criticism of religion, despite forced exile and multiple fatwas, calling for her death. Not many have risked their life to tell the truth as Taslima has been doing for years.

In India, Bangladesh and abroad, Nasrin's fiction, poetry and memoir have topped the best-seller's list.

Taslima Nasrin was born in Mymensing in Bangladesh in 1962. She started writing from the age of 13 and was acclaimed as a major writer in Dhaka in her late 20s. Her writings also won the hearts of people across the border and she landed with the prestigious literary award Ananda Puroskar in 1992 and 2000.

Subsequently, Taslima was acclaimed as a writer in Europe and the USA. She won The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thoughts from the European Parliament in 1994. She received the Kurt Tucholsky Literary Award in 1994 and the Simone de Beauvoir Award and Human Rights Award from the government of France in 1995 and 2008 respectively. She got the UNESCO prize for Promotion of the Tolerance and Non-violence in 2005.

Bestowed with honorary doctorates from Gent University and UCL in Belgium, and American University of Paris in France, she has addressed gatherings in major venues of the world like the European Parliament, National Assembly of France, Nobel Institute in Norway, Universities of Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, etc.

She got fellowships as a research scholar of Harvard and New York Universities. And is presently a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in the USA.

Taslima has written 34 books, which include poetry, essays, novels and autobiography series. Her works have been translated in twenty Indian [regional] and European languages. Internationally known writer and activist, who has been forced to live in exile since 1994, as the Islamists announced bounty on her head, when she criticized Sharia, Islam and Koran as well as pictured the repression and suppression of women in the Muslim societies.

Taslima Nasrin has been trying to return to Bangladesh from 17-years in exile since Bangladesh Awami League formed government in 2009. Recently she accorded an exclusive interview to Weekly Blitz. Here are the excerpts:

Q: On August 27, 2011 you have visited the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi [India], where Anna Hazare is fasting in protest of corruption in India. Does this visit express your support and solidarity to people protesting corruption?

A: I always support people who fight to make the world a better place.

Q: with Anna Hazare's ongoing crusade against corruption and the big scandals such as 2 G Spectrum scams, do you believe that Indian politicians and bureaucracy have already reached to an alarming level of corruption?

A: Anna's anti corruption movement raised public awareness of corruption.

Q: You have always been vocal against Islamism. How do you see the ongoing Jasmine Revolution in the Arab world? Do you feel, Islamists are removing the secularist autocrats and ultimately Arab world is going into grips of Islamists and Jihadists?

A: I don't think Arab world will ultimately be ruled by Islamists. There are secular, open-minded, free thinkers, politically conscious people among the new generation. They will prevent Islamists from bringing theocracy.

Q: Are you happy over the fall of Gaddafi regime in Libya? What will be your expectation from the next government in that country, as far as liberation of women is concerned? Do you think, new leaders in Libya will be able to ensure freedom to women, or they too will behave in the same manner as the predecessors?

A: No society remains stagnant for centuries. Progress will come sooner or later. Gaddafi was greedy for power. I believe new leaders in Libya will do everything for women to get equal rights. I can't guess what would happen. Let's hope for the best.

Q: Some critics and analysts are saying, "Libya has possibly gone into the grips of international syndicate of fascists from the grip of a local fascist." What is your assessment of such comments?

A: I don't think so. Libya's rebels get international help to remove Gaddafi but it does not mean it is already gone to the grips of international fascists.

Q: You missed the flight to Nepal and you wrote in your Twitter comment "My Nepali friends, I missed my flight to go to Kathmandu today. I forgot to bring my passport as I didn't consider Nepal a foreign country!" While as a foreign national you need passport to visit India, why not Nepal also? Or, you went to airport without passport, as Indian nationals do not use passports to visit Nepal?

A: I just forgot to put my passport in my hand bag, but when I checked my bag on the way to the airport, I rushed home to collect my passport But when I arrived at the airport it was too late. The plane was about to leave. Then I posted a tweet about Nepal, it was just to express my feelings--how close I feel to Nepal. Many Nepalese were waiting for me in the literary festival. Nepalese read my books, they love me a lot. As love makes me feel at home. I feel at home with Nepalese. My comment was simply out of love. Some hateful ignorant Nepalese did not understand what I said. They started showing their anger. But of course all Nepalese are not petty nationalists. Many apologized and said, they love and respect me. But I was surprised when I saw media's reaction. They published the news without reading my tweets.

Q: Do you feel sorry for you comments on Twitter about not considering Nepal "a foreign country"?

A: Not at all. I believe no country is foreign country. The world is ours, and we all humans are one. I don't believe in national boundaries and politics of separating humans in the name of nationality, religion, ethnicity etc.

Q: Awami League government came to power in January 2009 and since then you have been trying to get your Bangladeshi passport renewed. But, almost three years have passed and your passport is not yet renewed. Will you please describe what is happening?

A: They don't renew my passport. I have tried a lot but failed. I have heard that Sheikh Hasina personally does not want me to return to my home. She is behaving like an autocrat. As if she owns the country. As if I don't belong to my country. As if she has the right to decide who should live in the country and who should not. Since 1994, all the governments have been behaving the same. She is no different. Anti-fundamentalist forces voted her to win the election but she is fulfilling fundamentalists' demand not to allow me to enter my country.

She [Sheikh Hasina] cries for her father. But it's she who did not let me go to my country to see my ailing father in his last days. How cruel one can be!

Q: Bangladeshi foreign minister Dr. Dipu Moni made statement to media, more than a year back that your passport issue will be "taken care of". Have you tried to contact the Bangladeshi foreign minister on your passport issue?

A: No government people let me go near them. I wrote a letter to Dipu Moni. I wrote letters to Sheikh Hasina. One of the letters was even published in a newspaper. They don't react. As if I am nothing and nobody. My passport issue has not been taken care of.

Q: Why Awami League government is reluctant in renewing your passport, thus allowing you to visit Bangladesh. Are they ignoring you or are afraid of reaction from the Islamists? Will you please elaborate?

A: Ask her. She knows better than me why she has been preventing me from entering my country.

Q: Most of your publications are banned in Bangladesh. The current government, claiming to be secular, did not lift such ban. What is the reason behind?

A: Khaleda Zia banned many of my books. Sheikh Hasina also banned my book titled 'Amar Meyebela'. The book was translated in many languages and got many awards in many countries. But the book has been banned by the so called 'progressive secular government' in Bangladesh. All my banned books got pirated and sold everywhere. No action was taken against pirate publishers. The governments are just against the author and the people who published the book legally. 'Amar Meyebela' is a story of my girlhood days. Hasina said, the book is 'vulgar'. Actually they are nothing but vulgar jokes who ban books and pretend to support freedom of expression.

Q: Do you consider Awami League to be a secularist party combating the Islamists? Or, they also are appeasing Islamists like their political opponents?

A: Concerning the issue of letting me return to Bangladesh, they are certainly appeasing Islamists.

Q: As Bangladesh's current government has excellent relations both with Congress and the government. Why don't you use your personal relations with both in suggesting the Bangladeshi government to renew your passport?

A: I don't have personal relation with any politician or government people. I have the right to go back to my country. I want to get back the right I have. I am grateful to Indian government for letting me stay in India. If Indian government threw me out of India, I would not have a place in the subcontinent. Bangladesh government should be ashamed of being a coward.

Q: How you assess the fall of leftists in West Bengal. What you aspire from the government of Mamata Bannerjee?

A: Leftists had to leave. They stayed too long. Mamata Banerjee got popularity and deserved to be the chief minister of West Bengal.

Q: A film named Arakshan has been banned from getting released in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. In your opinion, why such actions have been taken against a film that deals with the caste-based quota system for the socially backward classes?

A: I haven't seen the film. But no book, no film, no music, no painting should be banned. If you violate people's freedom of expression, you destroy the very pillars of democracy.

Q: Some of the Bangladeshi intellectuals, such as writer Syed Shamsul Huq, after the publication of your book named KA termed you as an "untrue writer." He also reportedly criticized "fabricated vulgarity and character assassination" in that book. Will you please comment on this? Also, will you defend what you wrote about Mr. Shamsul Huq's alleged indecent approach on you?

A: He may be a great writer but he is a liar. I may not be a great writer but I don't lie.

Q: As an internationally known write, what is your personal assessment on the writer qualities of Syed Shamsul Huq?

A: I liked some of his early books. But I have no idea what he is writing now a days. To tell the truth, it is difficult for me to read dishonest people's writings. I know they don't believe in anything they write.

Q: Sheikh Hasina for the first time gave important ministries like Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs to females. Do you now believe it is her effort of empowering the women?

A: Gender is not important. Ideological commitments are important to improve the condition of women. If those powerful women don't do anything for women's equal rights, if they don't change the discriminatory family laws that based on religion, if they don't fight anti-women tradition and culture -- then there is no difference between female minister and misogynistic male ministers.

Q: You have been opposing extra-judicial killing. Recently Amnesty International has made statements demanding disarming Rapid Action Battalion in Bangladesh. What is your comment on this?

A: I am for the disarming of RAB.

Q: As some Bangladeshi Islamists announced bounty on your head, are you planning to lodge formal criminal cases against those who made such announcements?

A: I am not in Bangladesh. It is not easy for me to sue anyone. I need to give power of attorney to someone. No Bangladesh embassy, attest the power of attorney documents that I made. Without that no Bangladeshi lawyer can work on behalf of me. Embassies don't get government's permission to help me. Governments actually gave instructions to all the embassies to reject my all kind of appeals.

Q: What is the latest fate of the charges, which were brought against you in a Bangladeshi court? Has the charge been withdrawn?

A: They file cases against me and they give verdict without my presence. Everything is a joke!

Q: Will you please tell us about your next publication?

A: 7th part of my autobiography will be published soon.

Related Topics:  International News receive the latest by email: subscribe to weekly blitz's free mailing list