Silent protest in support of Taslima Nasreen

New Delhi: Holding banners and placards, protestors stood in a circle at Safdar Hashmi Road expressing their anguish at the way the freedom of expression and secular credentials of India have come under serious threat from fundamentalist forces. Among organisations that came together to express their solidarity with Taslima Nasreen, a Bangladeshi writer, were the South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Sangat, Women Unlimited, Zubaan, Women’s Feature Service, PEACE, Insaf, Amnesty International India, etc. Senior columnist Kuldeep Nayar, social activist Swami Agnivesh, women’s rights activist Kamla Bhasin, journalist Javed Naqvi, academics Uma Chakravarthy and Badri Raina were some of the prominent people who came out to protest against the hounding of the writer. On the run Taslima Nasreen, 45, has been on the run ever since she was forced to flee her country in 1994 after having faced persistent persecution at the hands of both Islamic fundamentalists and the then Bangladeshi government for her writings and remarks against certain Islamic practices. She took asylum in Sweden. In 1998, when she returned to Bangladesh to be with her ailing mother, the Muslim clerics were yet again baying for her blood. Distraught, she fled and lived in the United States and Europe before making Kolkata her home in 2003, where she had been living until November 22, when once again she was forced to leave the city after Muslim outfits demanded her exit. She was flown to Rajasthan and then brought to New Delhi. Her Indian visa expires in February 2008. Upholding democracy “We are fighting for democracy, secularism and right to dignity for writers,” said Kamla Bhasin. When asked if Indian society was becoming increasingly intolerant, Bhasin was quick to dismiss it: “I don’t really think that Muslims of India are intolerant. I think it is just handful of people who consider themselves to be the sole representatives of Islam or Hinduism.” She felt the way this whole issue had been handled by the West Bengal government was completely inexplicable and that was the reason they were holding this silent protest, leaving the slogans written on the banners and placards to say what they wanted to say. Swami Agnivesh said: "If Muslim fundamentalists have anything they disagree with, they have as much a right and we will come in defence of their right to say what they want to say in writing, in speeches. But holding the country to ransom using violence as a tool is not acceptable in any civilised society." “We are very clear that Taslima Nasreen should not be hounded the way she is being hounded,” he added. Hitting out at right-wing parties who have taken sides with Taslima Nasreen, he said that they were playing double standards, referring to celebrated artist M.F. Hussain’s forcible self-exile because of these very Hindu chauvinistic forces and the way they kept making hue and cry over the issue of Bangladeshi Muslim migrants in India. He described them as “obscurantist” and looked at their commitment for the value of freedom of expression with suspicion. Javed Naqvi said: “Taslima is a symbol of a rebellion against entrenched, religious, anti-women groups. All religions in my view are anti women essentially because they have a very stereotyped notion of where women belong.” He added that she needed to be correctly understood in India. “Bengalis themselves rate her at par with Nazrul Islam, a legendary Bengali poet, in terms of her rebel character. Liberal Bangladeshis are the first to admit that the most important facet of her writings is that she is against religious bigotry of all kinds.”

User comments

There are no comments

 Printable version