Taslima Nasrin om Bangladesh

Ikke et land, der imponerer nogen:

Taslima Nasrin: Fleeing from a totalitarian and corrupt regime

by Giulia Mazza – January 17, 2012

The famous writer tells AsiaNews about her exile from Bangladesh, the country “nominally democratic country, but which in reality is only a corrupt government.” Following the pubblication of her novel Lajja (Shame), Taslima had to flee the state in 1994 because of Islamist death threats. All her books are banned in her homeland.

“Bangladesh is a totalitarian regime with a corrupt government. There is nothing democratic about, it is only a pretense it presents to the world”, Taslima Nasrin, the well known Bangladeshi writer, does not mince his words speaking to AsiaNews. For 17 years she has been exiled from Bangladesh and her family, after she was forced to flee in 1994 because of death threats from an Islamic fundamentalist group. Taslima, originally a Muslim but now a self-declared atheist, wrote Lajja (Shame), in 1993 a novel that tells the story of a Hindu family persecuted by Muslims. Billed as blasphemous, by the Bangladeshi government of the era (the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of Khaleda Zia, now in opposition), it was banned together with the other author’s books. Islamic fundamentalists launched a fatwa (ruling) against Taslima, accusing her of blasphemy and calling for her death by hanging. Having already abandoned the practice of medicine in 1994 she left Bangladesh to live in India, where she also received death threats.

Mere HER hos Asia News. Kan også læses her hos Spero News.

Bangladesh: Rektor arresteret for besiddelse af Taslima Nasrins bog

Eller rettere sagt: den forbudte bog, Lajja, er blevet fundet på universitetes bibliotek -

Opdatering – AsiaNews har indhentet kommentarer fra Nasrin:

Teacher arrested for having a copy of a book by Taslima Nasrin

January 5, 2012

Police found a copy of Lajja (Shame), in the school library. The famous novel banned since 1993 for “blasphemy”. Forced to flee death threats since 1994, the author comments: “This arrest proves that Bangladesh is not a democracy but a totalitarian regime.”

Mere HER hos AsiaNews.

Bangladesh teacher arrested over banned book

Jan. 04 2012 | The Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Police have arrested the head teacher at a college in southern Bangladesh after a book considered blasphemous by some Muslims was found in the school’s library, an official said Wednesday.

Police officer Abdul Malek said S.M. Yunus Ali was arrested for possessing the novel “Lajja,” or “Shame,” written by exiled writer Taslima Nasrin.

Malek said Ali, head teacher at the K.C. Technical and Business Management College, could face up to three years in jail if he is found guilty of authorizing the book’s inclusion in the library.

Mere HER hos CP24. Kan også læses her hos Stuff.

Andre kilder: Winnipeg Free Press, Metro, AFP,

Video: Taslima Nasrin om det arabiske forår

Islamists may hijack Arab Spring – Taslima Nasrin – November 23, 2011

With four fatwas against her and a bounty offered for her head, the former Sakharov Prize winner and Bangladeshi women’s rights activist pledges to fight on. From EuroparlTV.

Mere om Taslima Nasrin vs. Salman Rushdie

The Times of India har et interview med Taslima Nasrin efter twitterkrigen imod Salman Rushdie:

Male writers are like God: Taslima Nasreen

Vinita Chaturvedi | Sep 24, 2011

As a storm is created over her tweets about Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasreen talks about ‘fragile male egos’ in an exclusive rendezvous with us.

When Taslima Nasreen tweeted about Salman Rushdie’s debut overdrive on Twitter, she wouldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams that her comments would make headlines. What started after that was hate messages flying fast and furious against Taslima on social networking sites. Taslima voices her anguish about “the existing prejudices and male chauvinism” in a chat with us.

Mere HER i The Times of India. Tidligere blogget om samme sag:

• Salman Rushdie og Taslima Nasrin fører krig på Twitter

Opdatering 31. oktober 2011 – Nasrin ude med mere nødvendig provokation:

Through her twitter account, Taslima said that a Muslim Woman should have sex with 72 men. “Muslim women deserve to have sex with 72 virgin men on the earth as they won’t get these things in heaven.”

She further wrote: “Men start suffering from erectile dysfunction in their 30′s. But their machismo remains alive until their last day.”

Mere HER hos Samay Live.

Salman Rushdie og Taslima Nasrin fører krig på Twitter

Salman Rushdie spars with Taslima Nasreen on Twitter

Javed Anwer | Sep 22, 2011,

Days after he joined Twitter saying he was now in the “madhouse”, author Salman Rushdie may be realizing that the social media site can be just that.

On Wednesday, Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen got into a micro-blogging spat, with the Bangladeshi writer accusing him of “begging” for followers and chasing women.

“Salman Rushdie is begging everyone to follow him on Twitter. He’ll feel embarrassed if he doesn’t get a million followers,” she tweeted, adding, “Be aware of Salman Rushdie! He wants to get girls in his ‘whipped cream range’.”

Mere HER i Times of India. Opdatering – se eventuelt også denne kommentar i samme avis:

• What is Taslima’s problem?

Andre kilder: News Bullet, OneIndia News, The New York Observer,

Interview med Taslima Nasrin

Introduktionen i artiklen er ikke den samme som i den ledsagende mp3. Audioen er bedre. Men selve interviewet er identisk - audio her:

“Bangladesh government should be ashamed” – Taslima Nasrin

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury- August 29, 2011

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 fatwa calling for her death. Not many have risked their life to tell the truth.In India, Bangladesh and abroad, Nasrin’s fiction, poetry and memoir have topped the best-seller’s list.

Mere HER i Weekly Blitz.

Opdatering 6. september 2011 – WikiLeaks har offentliggjort indhold fra notater af en amerikansk ambassadør i Indien:

Taslima: US envoy condemns all parties

Pallavi Shahi – New Delhi | 4th Sep 

The CPI(M) is “hypocritical and authoritarian” over controversial author Taslima Nasreen, the BJP is “opportunistic and exploitative” and the Congress is “neither secular nor courageous”, said the then US ambassador to India, David Mulford in a cable commenting on the three parties’ handling of the Nasreen crisis in 2007, when she was forced to flee Kolkata. In a 28 November 2007 cable released by WikiLeaks, the ambassador scathingly comments, “India’s main political parties could not care less about Nasreen or her writing beyond how their parties’ reactions to events play to voters”.

Mere HER i The Sunday Guardian.

Opdatering 22. september 2011 – lille nyt interview:

If Mamata allows, would love to return to Kolkata: Taslima

Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen feels “Peace is far away” and claims that she is a victim of religious, political and social ‘fatwas’.

“Unfortunately, settlement is not for me. Banning, censorship continues. Not only religious fatwas, I became an unfortunate victim of political and social fatwas. Life is not easy and peace is far away,” 49-year-old Nasreen, who has been living in Delhi since June, said.

Mere HER i Indian Express.

Video: Taslima Nasrin i Oslo 2011

Fra Oslo den 12. til 14. august 2011. Så vidt jeg kan høre, er det næsten samme tale som Taslima Nasreen plejer at holde, men den er nu også værd at lytte til:

World Humanist Congress Taslima Nasrin

Andre Kilder: International Humanist and Ethical Union,

Indien: Babyer tvinges til kønsskifte

Ny indisk rekord i vanvid:

Girls as young as ONE ‘forced to have sex change operations in India’

By Daily Mail on 27th June 2011

Girls as young as one are being forced into sex change operations in India by parents desperate for a son.

Surgeons in the city of Indore are reported to be ‘converting’ hundreds of girls a year, who are subsequently pumped full of hormone drugs.

A report in the respected Hindustan Times newspaper said the ‘shocking, unprecedented trend, catering to the fetish for a son, is unfolding at conservative Indore’s well-known clinics and hospitals on children who are one to five years old.

Mere HER i Daily Mail. Og endnu en artikel om indiske forhold:

Poor Little Rich Country

How do you categorize India, a nation that is at once fantastically wealthy and desperately poor?

By Patrick French | June 24, 2011

In May, the Indian government announced that it was giving $5 billion in aid to African countries in the interest of helping them meet their development goals. “We do not have all the answers,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “but we have some experience in nation-building, which we are happy to share.”

Mere HER i Foreign Policy.

Andre kilder: Metro, The Daily Star, The Global Post, Hindustan Times, The Telegraph,

Interview med Taslima Nasrin

Indiens Picasso, kaldte man den nyligt afdøde maler, M. F. Hussain, der blev 96 år gammel. Men det er ikke så let at være  modernist, maler og muslim. Især ikke, når man håner hinduerne. Maqbool Fida Husain endte sine dage i frivilligt exil i London. Indiens premierminister, Manmohan Singh, sagde, at det var et tab for nationen. Interviewet med Taslima Nasreen indledes med et spørgsmål om Hussain, men handler ellers om noget helt andet:

‘I supported Husain but you can’t disown your country’

Rakhi Chakrabarty | Jun 19, 2011

For nearly two decades, Bangladeshi doctor-turned-writer Taslima Nasrin, 49, has been living in exile, driven out by fundamentalist ire in her country and in Kolkata against her liberal views. Yet, the atheist author tells Rakhi Chakrabarty that she hopes to return to the familiar grounds in Kolkata again, if not Bangladesh. Excerpts:

After M F Husain died in exile in London, you tweeted “Cry beloved country, cry”. Did you identify with him?

I believe in absolute freedom of expression. Everyone has a right to offend and be offended. So I supported Husain. In India, I see a division: some support Husain, others support Rushdie. Why can’t they support everybody’s freedom of expression? If they can’t support Rushdie, (Danish cartoonist Kurt) Westergaard, M F Husain, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Asiya Bibi and me equally, then they don’t believe in the freedom of expression. But I don’t quite understand why Husain took Qatari citizenship? I wouldn’t have done that. Was it because he was angry with Hindu fundamentalists? But they don’t make the whole of India. When Bangladesh refused to renew my passport, I used UN travel documents. You can’t disown your country.

Mere HER i Times of India.

Andre kilder: Wikipedia,

Opdatering 1. juli – Nick Cohen har en lille artikel om Husain her i Standpoint Magazine.

Video: Taslima Nasrin i Sverige

Fra 30.  juli 2008 på Stadsteatern:

Is religion the hotbed of Homophobia? (from 2008 – with Taslima Nasrin)

A seminar held during Pride 2008, arranged by the Swedish Humanist association. Filmed by Henrik Thomé

Fra Humanisternas hjemmeside:

Deltagande var förutom Nasrin, Barbro Westerholm, Anna Karin Hammar, Andrew Copson och Sonny van De Steene. Mötet leddes av Christer Sturmark och Carl-Johan Kleberg.

Har hidtil ligget på Google Videos, men YouTubet for nylig. Efter Taslima Nasreens tale, handler videoen mest om homoseksuelle rettigheder. Taslima siger kort noget igen efter 1 time og 5 minutter og igen efter 1 time og 12 minutter, men jeg kan generelt ikke anbefale andet end Nasrins tale:

Video: Taslima Nasrin – talen fra Melbourne

Indtil nu har Taslima Nasreens fremragende tale kun været tilgængelig som audio, men i går blev videoen uploadet. Ikke så mærkeligt, at denne tale er så berømt:

Taslima Nasrin GAC 2010

Taslima Nasrin at the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, March 2010.

Der er et par Q&A efter talen:

Foretrækker man at lytte til mp3, er den her:

• Audio: Fremragende tale af Taslima Nasrin

Audio: Interview med Taslima Nasreen

Fra WRS Radio den 11. marts 2011 – Taslima Nasrin:

Exiled writer Taslima Nasreen: ‘I didn’t choose this life’

WRS’s Pete Forster speaks to Taslima Nasreen, the Bangladeshi dissident writer who has been living in exile since 1994. She has been denounced by the Muslim clergy and received death threats from Islamic fundamentalists for her outspoken work about equality for women and human rights. A film about her, Taslima Nasreen, sans domicile fixe, is at the International Forum and Film Festival on Human Rights in Geneva

Startes HER – åbner Windows Media Player. Varighed 9½ minut.

Reservelink her.

Video: Om Taslima Nasreen og islam i Bangladesh

Journyman Pictures har dags dato stillet denne dokumentarfilm til rådighed på YouTube. Det har ellers hidtil ikke været muligt at indlejre den på blogge.

I programmet medvirker foruden Taslima Nasrin også Muhammad Yunus, der i 2006 fik Nobelprisen for sit arbejde med mikrokredit. Filmen er fra 1994, men desværre deprimerende aktuel. Vi hører især om kvinders situation:

Taslima Nasreen – One Woman Against Islam

Andre kilder: Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Jyllands-Posten,

Video: Taslima Nasrin om et liv i landflygtighed

Uploadet af France24 den 5. maj 2008:

Taslima Nasreen, award-winning author

Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen’s writing has won prestigious awards, scorn and death threats alike for its religious critiques. She’s FRANCE 24’s Andrea Sanke’s guest.