haven't seen how she talks, so if you are interested, here we go-- an interview with one of the most controversial writers from bangladesh, a feminist human rights activist-- winner of the sakharov prize for freedom of thought in 1994, and a humanist award from the international humanist and ethical union in 1996. in march 2007, an indian muslim group--all india ibtehad council-- offered a bounty of 500,000 rupees for her beheading.

in her autobiography, nasrin mentioned that she was sexually assaulted by her relatives and other men in her early years. these incidents had a strong influence on her later life to become a staunch feminist. she initially gained fame as a poet and columnist. 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 her popularity is because of her critical views on religions, especially islam.

living in exile for more than 12 years, she is currently residing in india and has requested the Indian government to grant her indian citizenship.

Part 1:



Part 2:>



Part 3:



Part 4:

The most over-rated writer I have ever read.

I read her nepali translation of 'lajja'; it was a sad story. But I just wondered why Bengalese banned it. She just wrote what she saw. I'd like to read her autobiography as well. I hope that she's granted with indian citizenship soon.

i believe, she got all the attention for what she wrote --TRUTH. she is an extremist (feminist) to some extent, but living in the agony of hypocritical islamic and male-dominant patriarchal society for a woman is not at all easy. she is a rebel on her own league. i can at least put myself in her shoes and understand the plight of women in an unjust and hypocritical south asian male-dominant society.

I wish india grant her the citizenship and she will get it. I know she has over rated but worth it.
thanks for bringing in sajha

Well, I stated above that she is an over-rated writer- TRUE. But in the interview above, she accepts that she is more of a social- activitist than a writer. I think she is justified. But she does so many little things for publicity - like trying to settle in Bengal of India, while she knows that it will being religious unrest in Bengal because of her .

Dirty politics again, the bengal government is trying not to give her citizenship. I'm looking forward to read her autobiography soon. She's very courageous and determined and seems very conscious of her acts. After watching it, I've even more respect for her.

Here comes few details from her books:
http://www.usenet.com/newsgroups/soc.culture.bangladesh/msg02728.html

Andhra MLAs lead mob attack on Taslima

Hyderabad: Local political activists in Hyderabad on Thursday attacked the car of noted Bangaladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen when she was attending the book release of the Telugu translation of her latest novel Shodh.

A group of 20 All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) workers, led by MLAs Afsar Khan, Ahmed Pasha and Mozum Khan, stormed the Press Club premises and raised slogans against the author.

They attacked her with bouquets, flower pots and virtually anything they could lay their hands on at the concluding session of the book release

http://ibnlive.com/news/andhra-mlas-lead-mob-attack-on-taslima/46513-3.html

View/Share this post only

thanks gahugoro for sharing the news.

here's the publisher's review of her book- "Shodh"- that brought the upheaval.


Shodh addresses how Taslima's assertion of female desire outside of the marital bond validates female sexuality in a society which is based on the systematic regulation of female sexuality through religion and other socio-cultural mechanisms. She effects this through a transformation of roles assigned to women-as lover, wife, mother and daughter-in-law.

The story of Jhumur's marriage to Haroon, therefore goes beyond the study of marriage or the fate of a person and raises issues such as: Is love possible without self-respect; what is the relationship among love, desire and marriage; In what way can the established familial relationships be redefined...In this novel, as much as her other non-fictional works, Nasrin's personal experience breathes life into the narrative.

I really praise this women's courage.

excerpts of the book and analysis:

In the book "Ka", Taslima narrated in detail her sexual encounters
with various personalities of Bangladesh's literary milieu and few
other people. People who were known as "deity" to common people ten
years ago has been depicted as "monsters" in her book. Taslima has
issued character certificates for all these people in her book. She
performed meticulous surgery on the characters of those so-called
cultured members of the civil society - secular writers, poets,
novelists, dramatists, essayists, journalists, et al. These people
used to call themselves "intellectualists". They used to recite their
humanistic poems in various programs. The nation is continuously given
dossier of valuable lessons through the TV rendition of their stories
and novels. But many people did not know their real character. Taslima
gave the unique opportunity to the people of Bangladesh to get to know
the true colour of those people who used to be adored by the
countrymen as ideal citizens -- torch-bearers of peace & progress.

Taslima discussed about her personal (literary & sex) life in the
book.

Six persons with
whom she had pre and extra-marital sexual affairs were novelist
Imdadul Haque Milon, Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah (later her first
husband), journalist Naimul Islam Khan (later her second husband),
Mohammad Ali Minar aka Minar Mahmud (later her third husband and
former Bichinta editor; currently living in the USA), poet Syed Hasmat
Jalal (son of Calcatian litterateur Syed Mustafa Shiraj) and Kaiser
(former Gazipur subdistrict chairman). Among the people who wanted to
take her to bed were novelist Syed Shamsul Huq, poet Helal Hafiz,
journalist Abu Hasan Shahriar, Mozammel Babu, publisher Khoka, et al.
Taslima divulged the dark side of the lives of medical practitioners
Shipra & Manu, Shipra & Harun, Neepa & Naheed, Farhad Mazhar & Farida
Akhter, poet Shamsur Rahman & Oyshwaryashila (a married hindu
housewife) and Mriganka (a 21-year old young hindu man) & Sharifa
Khatun (a 58-year old woman).

There is a group of people in our society who are engaged in
promiscuous sexual acts. But they never acknowledge that due to fear
of either rejection by the people around them or loosing respectful
status in the society. But this is sheer hypocrisy. There is no dearth
of hypocrite people in our society. Just as there are lot of hypocrite
politicians so are hypocrite social workers. It's the same situation
with the number of hypocrite beggars, yellow journalists and dishonest
businessmen. But Taslima Nasrin is an exception to this. No matter
what she is, she is at least not a hypocrite for the most part. She
admitted openly whatever promiscuous things she did. It was expected
of her admirers to speak highly of her. But it did not turn out to be
that way this time. Because they are not as courageous as Taslima is.
Their actions don't follow their words. Taslima had no hesitation to
brand them as hypocrites even if many would find it hard to do so.

Taslima made it clear that she had sexual encounters with
many of these personalities. She was quite amazed to find their strong
propensity to make love to her although Taslima herself is not a saint
either. Caught red-handed, these so-called poets, litterateurs,
novelists are now accusing Taslima of penning a pornographic book.
Some are making scathing remarks such as "It's not true what Taslima
said", "So what?", "It's not proper to say such things", "gone too
far", "It does not matter what she said", "She lost her originally",
"She has run out of gas but still doing stunts to remain in the
limelight" etc. It is quite amusing that ten years ago, these same
bunch of people stood beside Taslima to uphold her right to free
speech and free lifestyle. The champions of these so-called libertine,
womaniser, secularist, sham-intellectualist hypocrites now want to gag
free speech. They went full steam to encourage her to make
anti-Islamic and blasphemous remarks. But they are now at loggerheads
with her now that she has brought into the fore the dark side of these
so-called intellectualists. In the past, they wanted to use Taslima to
garner their selfish interests and to speak against Muslims and Islam.

Some of the personalities, whose names were mentioned in the book,
admitted, "90% of what Taslima wrote are facts; 10% colour was added
to give it a literary flavour."

People who had sex with her did not directly deny Taslima's
allegations. They merely avoided the issue. Taslima made it crystal
clear, "After coming to know that I established sexual relationship
with more than one man, many men stare at my body with lustful eyes as
if my body is cheap and readily available to them." (Ka, p.266).

Those who are able to read Bengali, please direct your browser to
http://www.e-mela.com to read the original excerpts related to Syed
Huq from Taslima's book "Ka". The website features pages 65-75 from
her book that details Syed Huq's desperate attempt to have sex with
Taslima as well as his illicit sexual activities with various women
including his sister-in-law. Syed Huq put his hand on Taslima's bra
hook while pretending to show sympathy when Taslima was thinking about
deserting Rudra - her first husband. Taslima made it clear that she
harboured as much respect for Syed Huq as much as she had qualms about
his ill desires.

Calcatian libertine poet Syed Hasmat Jalal lodged a libel lawsuit in
Calcutta High Court against Taslima and asked for Taka 11 crore as
compensation. High Court's hindu communal judge Jayant Biswas banned
Taslima's book Dikhandito. Later, the book was banned by hindu
fundamentalist West Bengol govt.

In that West Bengal version of the book 'Ka', Taslima revealed her
sexual relationship with the communal hindu novelists, poets, story
writes, et al. Taslima claimed in her book that well-known novelist
Sunil Ganguly had sex with her. But Sunil declined it as usual. Sunil
tried in vain to justify the banning of the book by saying, "This
novel is blasphemous to Islam and can spread communal violence."

http://www.usenet.com/newsgroups/soc.culture.bangladesh/msg02728.html