Taslima returns to India and the threats start again

Bangladeshi writer and NSS honorary associate Taslima Nasreen, on the run from death threats from Islamic militants, has returned to India to renew her visa. “Taslima's six-month visa to stay in India will expire on August 17”, Sujato Bhadra, a human rights activist, told the press.

Taslima has been living in Sweden after being hounded out of India by threats and menaces from Islamic groups who accuse her of insulting Islam in her books. She has returned to India after the authorities there gave her assurances that her visa would be renewed.

The controversial writer was forced to flee her adopted home in the West Bengal state capital of Kolkata in November after receiving death threats from radical Indian Muslims. After several months in hiding under Indian government protection, Nasreen fled to Sweden in March, where she was offered a two-year safe haven, including a monthly allowance and an apartment. The author’s publisher Sibani Mukherjee has said that Taslima is currently staying in a secret location in the Indian capital New Delhi.

Taslima has been forced to move from one country to another since first fleeing her native Bangladesh in 1994 to live in exile after extremist Muslims there accused her of blasphemy over her novel Lajja (Shame) which depicts the life of a Hindu family persecuted in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. The 45-year-old gynaecologist-turned-author holds Swedish citizenship but has been seeking permanent residence in India, which does not permit dual nationality. New Delhi has stalled the request, fearful of a backlash from the country's 140-million-plus Muslims.

15 August 2008