THEIST_WATCH
  Msg  : 90                                         Written : 08/25/94 07:09pm
  From : ROBIN MURRAY-O'HAIR                        Status  :                 
  To   : ALL                                                                  
  Subj : Bagladesh Writer Update                                              

                      Taslima Nasrin Update


     For two months Taslima Nasrin, a 32-year-old writer and physician,
lived in hiding in her native Bangladesh as police searched for her to
arrest her for offending Muslims and Islamic groups rioted, demanding
her death. Though she eventually had to flee her country for her own
safe, she is in no way cowed by the experience.
     On Thursday, August 18, she made her first public appearance since
fleeing Bangladesh, holding a news conference in front of 140
journalists and cameramen. She boldly stated, "I know the
fundamentalists want to silence me. But I wish to continue my fight
against fundamentalism which is creating darkness in many parts of the
world. Everyone must raise their voice and stand against the evil
forces in society."
     Nasrin is an Atheist. The uproar in Bangladesh began when she was
reported in an Indian newspaper as saying that the Koran, the holy book
of Islam, should be revised. The government ordered her arrest on June
4, and she then went into hiding. Describing her time as a fugitive,
she said, "I had to move from one place to another, from one room to
another, and always under cover of darkness. I spent my time in rooms
without any light or air and outside I heard the voice of mullahs
shouting for me to be hanged." Nasrin finally surrendered herself to
the authorities and was released on bail by the Bangladesh High Court
on a charge of insulting Islamic believers.
     A week later the Bangladesh government granted her a tourist visa
to leave the country, and the Swedish PEN club, a writers'
organization, brought her to Sweden on August 10. On August 18 the
organization gave her a 150,000 crown ($19,300) literary prize given to
writers living in exile. Nasrin hopes to return to Bangladesh. The
government has not, however, guaranteed her safety.
     This is not her first brush with controversy. She earlier enraged
believers by calling marriage "indirect prostitution" and saying that
"Most women in Bangladesh live their lives as slaves of men. A cow to
some people is more useful and more respected than a woman."
     The Bangladesh government is under fired from Moslem
fundamentalists as well. Threatening to keep up protests until Nasrin
was returned to Bangladesh, Moulana Matius Rahman Nizami, deputy chief
of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, claimed, "The government had conspired to
let her go, and it's the responsibility of the government to ensure her
return to face the charges against her. . . . There can be no let-up in
the campaign until and unless the agent of Satan is appropriately
punished."
     On Saturday, August 27, Bangladesh President Abdur Rahman Biswas
was booed at a religious rally by over 500 Muslim militants. Shouting
"How could she go? Why was she not punished," the militants prevented
the president from finishing his speech. Earlier in the day, 10,000
Moslems had gather to demand that Nasrin be hanged.


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