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Taslima Nasrin Under House Arrest
The suppression of Talsima Nasrin’s writing has extended to her person. Details here and on her own web site here.Read More
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A Secular Twist on Fundamentalism
As if we needed proof that Fundamentalism need not have a religious foundation, we’re offered the spectacle of a Turkish publisher facing up to three years in prison for publishing a book “promoting reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.”Read More
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Collected Furies
“Most famous authors overshadow their books, but Taslima Nasreen is different. The Bangladeshi poet, novelist, essayist and memoirist, as things stand, is better known to the non-Bengali world for what she says than how she writes. At 45, the woman who trained and worked as a medical doctor in Dhaka before she fled her country is probably the world’s most prolific underground writer, with at least six of her 30 books officially banned in her country and the rest selling mostly under cover.” >> Read the whole story.Read More
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Support for Taslima Nasrin
“Activists, journalists, students, writers, leaders. People from all walks of life collect to advocate [Taslima Nasrin’s] right to free speech and expression.” And as you can see in this photograph by Shailendra Pandey, attacks on free speech can still — somewhere in the world — bring people into the streets.Read More
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A Grumbling Echo…
Now, I’m not a hater of Islam, but the behavior of some Muslims continues to disgust me. The latest sorry episode in the ongoing harrassment of Taslima Nasrin is a case in point. These fundamentalist twits caused Ms. Nasrin to “grumble” before agreeing to flee Calcutta for her own safety. I echo her grumbling and find myself, yet again, forced to wonder when her situation will receive more attention from groups like International PEN, whose web site contains a mere 3 references to Nasrin.Read More
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Fatwa, Schmatwa…
I shouldn’t be flip, of course, about a serious situation. No, I’m not talking the famous Salman Rushdie. I’m talking about a fascinating Bengali feminist poet named Taslima Nasrin, whose life has been threatened by the usual suspects. The latest news is not encouraging. Here’s an example of the kind of writing that’s gotten Taslima Nasrin in trouble: MOSQUE, TEMPLE Let the pavilions of religion be ground to bits,let the bricks of temples, mosques, guruduaras, churches be burned in blind fire,and upon those heaps of destructionlet lovely flower gardens grow, spreading their fragrance,let children’s schools and study halls grow.Read More