Bangladeshi Writer Must Hide In Exile Nasrin Offends Some Muslims With Defense Of Women’s Rights

Taslima Nasrin misses her country but knows she probably can’t go back. She longs to walk the streets again, free of the ever-present fear of attack.

At 32, the Bangladeshi writer is an international symbol of the perils of free speech. She is also a sad and lonely woman.

“I have given up all my happiness … that one day society and women will wake up,” she said Thursday in an interview. “I have sacrificed my normal life.”

Nasrin fled Bangladesh last August after Islamic extremists put a $5,000 bounty on her head for works that rail against religious persecution and the oppression of women in her homeland.

Nasrin, who now lives in Sweden under constant guard, came to Oxford Thursday to give a speech for Oxford Amnesty, a group that raises money for the London-based human rights group, Amnesty International.

“My writing is more important than a normal life,” said Nasrin, escorted by two police officers.

A tall woman, she is reserved and solemn as she spins out her thoughts in halting English. Keeping a cigarette just out of sight of a television camera, she asked to pause every few minutes to take a deep drag.

“When I write a book or an article, I never think what will happen,” she said. “I only think that as a writer I should tell the truth, I should protest inequality and injustice.”

Her smile - all the more dazzling for its rarity - broke out broadly as she spoke of a scheduled reunion with her father on Friday, their first meeting since August.

“I miss my country, I miss my relatives. I want to go home,” she said. “I would like to walk down the street alone.”

But that’s impossible, even in Sweden, “because any militant Muslim can kill me at any moment.”

Nasrin said she stands by “Shame,” her scorching 1993 novella about Muslim persecution of Hindus, which prompted the $5,000 bounty.

“I have told the truth,” she said.

Her peril grew last year when an Indian newspaper reported that in an interview Nasrin had called for changes in the Islamic holy book, the Koran. She says her statements to the Calcutta Statesman were misconstrued; that she was calling for changes in the Sharia, or Islamic law, to give women more rights.

She spent two months in hiding after the Bangladeshi government, under pressure from fundamentalists, ordered her arrest. Granted bail after surrendering, she fled to Sweden Aug. 9 as rioting radicals demanded her head.

Pulling self-consciously at her brown and gold sari, she said exile was a small price if it brings changes to Bangladesh.

Earlier this month, Dhaka’s High Court again postponed blasphemy proceedings against her. She could be tried in absentia and, if convicted, jailed for two years.

She said she would return to stand trial only if the government guarantees her security. But she said that was unlikely as the secular government is increasingly dependent on support from Muslim militants.

“With the help of the government, the fundamentalists are gaining strength, and one day they will destroy our society.”