TASLIMA NASRIN, AN INTREPID WARRIOR OF THE SPIRIT

TASLIMA NASRIN, AN INTREPID WARRIOR OF THE SPIRIT

A Taslima Nasrin has exposed the character of Islam, both theological and prsctical, more than an army of Islamic apologists can conceal it by their crafty ploys of deflection (vikshep) and cover-up (āvaran). Her personal suffering of banishment from motherland Bangladesh since 1994 for publication of her novel 'Lajjā' and subsequent status as exile in Europe and India, the threars to her safety and security ever since those early days of Islamic intolerance unleashed against her in her homeland that demanded her public execution and set a price on her head has made this intrepid writer a vociferous activist against Islamic oppression in particular and an activist for human rights in general. A culturally refined being with considerable literary attainments, a physician by training and a humanist to the core, Taslima continues to fight day in and day out to expose the hollowness and hypocrisy, the horror and shame (lajjā, as the title of her banned book runs as well) of an unjust world steeped in patriarchy and religious superstition and barbarism of bygone ages fast forwarded to modern times. Her seminal contribution to Bengali literature will outlive her earthly years but her singular contribution to the awakening of the human spirit in resistance to abounding evil emanating from the tenets and practice of the predominant faith of her countrymen---for she, by self-admissiin, has never been a practising or even believing Muslim since childhood---will be her lasting legacy to humanity. Indeed, what Taslima alone has done, not an army of activists in combination can manage to do and what a plethora of apologists of the faith can scarce conceal. 🕉 

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo: courtesy, Taslima Nasrin.