Sam Wainwright
In early August, Bangladeshi feminist writer Taslima Nasreen, condemned to death by Islamic fundamentalists, arrived in Sweden where she is now sheltering. Nasreen invoked the wrath of the fundamentalists with the publication in 1993 of her novel Shame.
Under pressure from the fundamentalists the Bangladeshi government issued a warrant for her arrest on June 5 for "offending religious feeling". Rather than placating the fundamentalists, the government's actions only spurred them on. On July 29 they organised a rally of 200,000 in the streets of Dacca, demanding that the novelist be hanged.
The next day, secular movements called a general strike in protest at the increasing integration of religion and the state. Meanwhile as the profile of the "Nasreen affair" grew, she won support and sympathy from people around the world.
Soon after appearing before the High Court on August 3, after two months in hiding, Nasreen left Bangladesh with the assistance of the Swedish government. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, she is now staying with members of the Swedish Pen Club, a writers' organisation that campaigned on her behalf.
Below is an appeal made by Nasreen while still in hiding that appeared in the French publication Rouge et Vert:
"Since a meeting yesterday at the National Mosque, here in the capital of Bangladesh, a crowd of 10,000 Islamic fundamentalists have been demanding my death. The Council of the Soldiers of Islam, that is to say the group that has proclaimed the fatwa, the death sentence, has been joined by other groups demanding that the government ban my books and put to death 'blasphemers' such as myself.
"My most recent book Lajja (Shame) portrayed a Hindu family persecuted in Bangladesh after the destruction of the Ayodhya Mosque in India in December 1992. In India Hindu fundamentalists have killed innocent Muslims, in Pakistan and Bangladesh Islamic fundamentalists have persecuted Hindus and burned their temples. It was after 50,000 copies of my novel had been sold that the government banned it under pressure from fundamentalists, saying that the book 'created misunderstandings between communities'.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence. Everywhere I look I see women being mistreated and their oppression justified in the name of religion. Don't I have a moral responsibility to raise a voice in protest? There are men who keep women chained up — veiled, illiterate and in the kitchen. There are 60 million women in my country, and no more than 15% know how to read and write. How can Bangladesh become a modern state and take its place in the world when it is held back by reactionary attitudes towards half of its population?
"I am convinced that if our women are to be free, then politics can not be founded on religion. Bangladesh must become a modern secular state; family law founded on Islamic principles has to be replaced by law that guarantees the same rights to women as men. This country has many other laws which contradict the religious courts and their fatwa, but no attention is paid to them.
"This year in the village of Chatakchara a young woman was stoned to death on the order of a local court because she had remarried after her divorce. In the village of Kalikapur, mullahs accused another young woman of fornication and condemned her to a public flogging with 100 strokes of a cane. She died soon after, allegedly by suicide.
"There are many other similar cases, young women from poor families in isolated regions condemned to death by the illegitimate representatives of Islamic law. For having raised my voice against these crimes, I too have been condemned to death. Why doesn't the government pursue the fanatics who pronounce these fatwa? There are many who believe that it is because the administration came to power with the help of the fundamentalists.
"The authorities confiscated my passport in January. When I tried to demand its return I was told it wasn't possible because I had written against religion. In September when the newspapers announced that the fundamentalists had put a price on my head, I applied to the police to guarantee my protection (the bounty, around $1200, has been withdrawn, but the fatwa is still in force).
"Our Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is she afraid to stand up to the fundamentalists? Does she not understand what she is tolerating, that she is allowing them to strengthen themselves, and that the time will come when they turn on her too?
"Bangladesh is my homeland. We won our independence from Pakistan with the cost of 300,000 lives. This sacrifice will be betrayed if we allow religious extremism to dominate us. Bangladesh must support women's equality and harmony between people with different beliefs. The mullahs who would kill me, will kill everything that is progressive in Bangladesh, if we let them. It is my duty to protect my beautiful country from them. I am calling on all those who share my values to help me to defend my rights. In doing so they will be helping to save Bangladesh."