Portrait of Taslima Nasrin
Barrylb, Wikimedia Commons
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Taslima Nasrin

b. 1962
Atheist

Taslima Nasrin was born into a Muslim family in Mymensingh. As a child she decided that her mother's preacher's God was cruel, and she became an atheist, she said, through scientific training. Her unbelief came out in her columns on what clerics did to women, and in a 1994 letter calling every scripture "out of place and out of time", and it cost her Bangladesh. In exile she wanted all religion banned (1995). Over thirty years she softened the demand without giving up the conviction, ending in 2025 with criticism "proportionate to the harm" and a right to believe or not.

The belief timeline

1962Faithchildhood (before c. 1975?)Declaration1993-94 (public); 1995 (first dated "I'm an atheist")Exile1994-08Revision2006-2025
  1. Faith (childhood (before c. 1975?)) — Born into a Muslim family; her mother's devotion to a pir and the mosque-and-prayer-bead household of the memoir (the amount of real childhood belief is not stated in the sources I read: Tax says she is "a born skeptic") [3][31]
  2. Crack (childhood) (undated, childhood) — Sits dry-eyed through a sermon on hellfire and thinks Allah "cruel and heartless"; reads a Quran for women that says the sun circles the earth and that women are inferior; the termite-eaten holy books [32][34]
  3. Doubt (adult) (undated; school and medical training) — "In course of my training in science, I developed the powers of observation, experiment, analysis, and reasoning. Without reasoning, I found, nothing should be accepted as fact." [3]
  4. Declaration (1993-94 (public); 1995 (first dated "I'm an atheist")) — Columns on stonings and floggings (1993); the May 1994 letter ("out of place and out of time"; "let humanism be our new faith"); 4 June 1994 case; ABC Lateline 1995 [37][39][36]
  5. Exile (1994-08) — Bail, then Sweden [40]
  6. Revision (2006-2025) — No change of belief recorded. Emphasis moves: 1995 and 2000 ("all religion should be banned"; "abolishing religion") to 2006 ("not against religion"), 2009 ("I criticise all religions"; "secular humanist"), 2015 ("I am an atheist"), 2025 ("proportionate to the harm"; right to believe or not believe) [36][51][35][52][53][54]
Notes to the timeline (13)
  1. [3] In her own words (1999): "I was born in a Muslim family, but I became an atheist. In course of my training in science, I developed the powers of observation, experiment, analysis, and reasoning." — Taslima Nasreen, "For freedom of expression", UNESCO WebWorld News Point of View, 12 Nov 1999 (her declaration to Commission V of UNESCO's General Conference, as delegate of the International Humanist and Ethical Union). Wayback capture of 3 Mar 2016. research/texts/unesco-viewpoint-1999.txt. Licence UNKNOWN; paraphrase until David decides, ] para. 2.
  2. [31] In the memoir, her mother, denied education and thwarted by her husband's affairs, "takes refuge in religion" and joins the following of the pir Amirullah (Tax: her mother's sister's husband); the child Taslima is taken to hear him describe hell, and the women's devotion and spending on him are described as exploitation. — Tilak D. Gupta (ANF), "Autobiography of a controversial writer" (review of the Bengali Amar Meyebela), The Tribune (Chandigarh), Sunday Reading, 5 Sept 1999:; Meredith Tax, "Taslima's Pilgrimage" (a review of Meyebela with a history of the case), The Nation, issue of 18 Nov 2002 (online 31 Oct 2002):. Reported at second hand; the original has not been seen.
  3. [32] In the memoir's account of one such meeting, the child sits behind her mother holding prayer beads, sees the women weeping in fear of fire, waits for tears that do not come, and decides that a god who roasts people alive is "cruel and heartless" (my paraphrase of the passage Tax quotes). — Tax, Meyebela.
  4. [34] In the memoir the child finds a Bengali adaptation of the Quran for women that says the sun moves round the earth, contradicting school, and rates women as inferior; she links Allah to the neighbour Getu's father, who nearly killed his wife and divorced her by three-fold talaq; she finds her mother's holy books riddled with termites and concludes the Quran was written by a "greedy, selfish man"; "millions of termites" remain "deep inside me, silently eating away all the letters and words in my head". — Tax, Meyebela, ] (the termite scene and the two quotations are Tax's).
  5. [37] In her 11 May 1994 letter to The Statesman (Time: 13 May) she wrote that she does not hold that the Quran should be "revised thoroughly", that she holds the Quran, Vedas, Bible and all such texts "out of place and out of time", that revision is irrelevant, and that "humanism be our new faith". A leading cleric called the retraction worse than the original. — Tax, Meyebela; James Walsh, "Death to the Author", Time, 15 Aug 1994 (two pages):, ] p. 2 (the "out of place and out of time" sentence). Accounts differ; see the disputed points.
  6. [39] On 4 June 1994 the police chief of central Dhaka filed a case under s. 295A and a warrant was issued; she and family went into hiding for about six weeks (Tax) or two months (Time). In early August she appeared at the High Court in a head scarf and tinted glasses, was bailed for $250 and kept her passport. — Tax, Meyebela; Walsh, "Death to the Author", ] p. 1.
  7. [36] In the 1995 ABC interview she said: she does not believe in God and is an atheist; religion is "totally against human rights and women's rights"; the Quran is out of place and out of time; "all religion should be banned" because of war, women's slavery, ignorance and persecution; the state must be secular and stop encouraging religion; she does not want to hurt believers; the common ground with Rushdie is criticism of Islam. She explained her turn to protest by what she saw of women's treatment: her parents said girls should stay home to learn cooking; "I took up my pen against the social system and religion". — Interview with Kerry O'Brien, ABC TV Lateline, 1995 (programme introduction and transcript), printed in The Atheist Newsletter no. 53, July 1995, transcribed by Joe Stanley and republished by the Atheist Foundation of Australia, 20 Apr 2012:.
  8. [40] She left for Sweden immediately after the bail agreement, negotiated by her lawyers Kamal Hossain and Sarah Hossain with the government under diplomatic pressure, on a visa to attend a Stockholm conference, and received asylum there. — Tax, Meyebela; Lateline95, ] introduction ("last August ... slipped out").
  9. [51] In a 2000 interview quoted by Tax she said she does not believe in tactics: "I just want to say whatever I believe in. That means abolishing religion," because religion cannot coexist with freedom of expression, human rights, women's rights, democracy or freedom; what she wants is "a revolution". — Tax, Meyebela.
  10. [35] In June 2006 a Calcutta cleric, Imam Syed Noor-ur-Rehman Barkati, complained of her reported remark at a Calcutta seminar that as a child she abused Allah and was not punished; he admitted offering money to anyone who "blackened" her face; she said she was misquoted and "I am not against religion, I only advocate woman's rights". — Subir Bhaumik, "Cleric quizzed over author threat", BBC News, 27 June 2006. bbc-2006-imam.txt, ] 27 June 2006.
  11. [52] In 2009 she described herself as a secular humanist, not anti-Islam; said she criticises all religions; said that when she was young she wanted to be an artist and had a rational mind and that her writing led many to become "agnostic or atheist or secular". — Michael Deibert, interview "Women's untold stories", Le Monde diplomatique (English), 5 Nov 2009:.
  12. [53] In March 2015 she said: "Please don't call me a Muslim, I am an atheist"; she criticises all religions including Hinduism; Islam should not be exempt from the scrutiny others have had. — Suvojit Bagchi, interview "Don't call me Muslim, I am an atheist", The Hindu, 21 Mar 2015 (updated 4 Dec 2021). hindu-2022-atheist.txt. Paraphrase.
  13. [54] On 19 Oct 2025 in Kochi, receiving the Litmus 2025 lifetime award from a group of freethinkers and atheists, she said her criticism of religion is "proportionate to the harm a religion inflicts", that she had defended persecuted Muslims, Hindus and Christians, that religious identity is irrelevant to her and that people may believe or not believe but none should be oppressed for it; she repeated that she was thrown out of her country for saying scriptures were out of time and place. — Report of her speech on receiving the Litmus 2025 lifetime achievement award, The Hindu, Kochi, 19 Oct 2025. thehindu-2025.txt. Paraphrase.

Out of Place and Out of Time

In 1998 the European Parliament recorded, in a resolution on her case, that

in 1994 Mrs Nasreen, one of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize laureates, had to leave Bangladesh and sought refuge in the EU in order to escape arrest in Bangladesh, having been accused of blasphemy12

The Parliament declared its support for her, and its conviction that freedom of expression is one of the basic human rights.3 Taslima Nasrin was a doctor and a writer from Mymensingh, and the law she was charged under punished anyone who, with deliberate and malicious intent, insulted the religious beliefs of any class of Bangladesh's citizens, with up to two years in prison.45 This chapter asks how a child in a Muslim household came to think the God of her mother's preacher cruel, how a doctor's scientific training made her an atheist, and how her unbelief, voiced in newspaper columns on the treatment of women, cost her her country.

Taslima Nasrin, photographed by Vera de Kok.
Taslima Nasrin, photographed by Vera de Kok.Vera de Kok, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

A Muslim girlhood

She was born on 25 August 1962, and her family lived in Mymensingh.6 Her father was a doctor who had risen from a poor peasant family; in her memoir he is a patriarch who ruled the household with an iron hand and was unfaithful to her mother.7 Her mother, denied an education and hurt by her husband's affairs, took refuge in religion and became a follower of a pir, a holy man, who was related to her by marriage; the child was taken to hear him describe hell.8 Her father wanted her to study science, not religion, and her parents fought over her, one pushing study, the other religion; a reviewer of the memoir calls her a born sceptic.9

The memoir, Amar Meyebela, "My Girlhood," which Bangladesh banned in 1999, is the source for the first crack, and it was not read for this chapter; what follows is told by its reviewers. At one of the pir's meetings, the child sat behind her mother holding prayer beads and watched the women weep in fear of the fire; the tears did not come to her, and she decided that a god who roasts people alive was cruel and heartless.1011 She found an adaptation of the Qur'an for women in Bengali that said the sun moved round the earth, against what she learned at school, and that women were inferior; she found her mother's holy books eaten by termites, and decided the Qur'an had been written by a greedy and selfish man.12 On her timeline, her faith is her childhood in a Muslim family, and the crack is these undated scenes.

The Brahmaputra at Mymensingh, the town of Nasrin's childhood, in a modern photograph.
The Brahmaputra at Mymensingh, the town of Nasrin's childhood, in a modern photograph.Baten6448, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

A doctor and a columnist

She began writing at thirteen, studied medicine, and practised as a gynaecologist; her father, she said in 2009, inspired her to become a doctor.13147 In 1999 she told the General Conference of UNESCO that she had been born into a Muslim family but had become an atheist, and that it had happened in the course of her scientific training, which taught her observation, experiment, analysis and reasoning; without reasoning, she had found, nothing should be accepted as fact.151617 No source gives a year. That is where her adult doubt belongs on the timeline.

By the late 1980s she was known for writing against the oppression of women, and a collection of her newspaper columns won the Ananda prize in Calcutta.1819 In 1993 her columns grew angrier, after reports of village punishments under religious law: a couple buried to the chest and stoned, a woman burned, and a sixteen-year-old girl sentenced by a tribunal to 101 lashes, who died. Nasrin wrote that the clerics responsible should be charged with murder.20 Her parents, she said in 1995, had told her that girls should stay home and learn to cook, and she had taken up her pen against the social system and against religion.21

Lajja

After the destruction of the Babri Masjid in India in December 1992 and the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh that followed, she wrote Lajja, "Shame," published in February 1993; the government banned it that year.22 It follows a Hindu family in Dhaka whose members are lifelong atheists and humanists, but who are attacked as Hindus all the same, until the father says at last, let us go away.23 In 2014 she wrote that she had not criticised Islam in Lajja, and that the fatwas against her came not from that book but from her criticism of Islam elsewhere.22

In September 1993 a militant group based in a madrassa in Sylhet, the Council of Soldiers of Islam, rallied five hundred people to call for her execution for, in the words a writer on the case reports, "blasphemy and conspiracy against Islam, the Holy Koran and its prophet," and offered a bounty for her death.2425 The group announced a national campaign for a death penalty for blasphemy.20

The Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, photographed in the nineteenth century. Its destruction in December 1992 was the starting point of Lajja.
The Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, photographed in the nineteenth century. Its destruction in December 1992 was the starting point of Lajja.Samuel Bourne, via Getty Museum open content and Wikimedia Commons
Sylhet, home of the militant group that called for Nasrin's execution in 1993.
Sylhet, home of the militant group that called for Nasrin's execution in 1993.Sabila Enun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Out of place and out of time

In May 1994 the Calcutta Statesman quoted her as saying that the Qur'an should be "revised thoroughly"; she said she had been misquoted and had meant the religious law.26 In a letter to the paper in mid-May she went further. She did not want the Qur'an revised, she wrote: she held the Qur'an, the Vedas, the Bible and all such texts to be out of place and out of time, so that revising them was beside the point, and she asked that humanism be the new faith. A leading cleric called the letter worse than the original remark.27 The timeline puts her declaration here.

On 4 June 1994 the police chief of central Dhaka filed a case against her under section 295A of the penal code, and a warrant was issued; she went into hiding.28 A British peer, Lord Avebury, later summed up her offence as having said that

the Koran should be interpreted in the light of changes in the social background which have occurred since the 7th century AD2930

That was his summary, not her words. In August, five days before she surrendered, a hundred thousand demonstrators gathered outside Parliament in Dhaka, calling her an apostate in the service of imperial powers.31 The British government told the House of Commons that the European presidency had raised "our concerns for Ms Nasreen's safety."3233 In early August she appeared at the High Court, was granted bail, kept her passport, and left at once for Sweden, where she received asylum; the European Parliament gives the end of 1994, and accounts differ.283435 That year the Parliament awarded her its Sakharov Prize.36

The Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in Dhaka, outside which a hundred thousand people demonstrated against Nasrin in August 1994.
The Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in Dhaka, outside which a hundred thousand people demonstrated against Nasrin in August 1994.Wasiul Bahar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Bangladesh Supreme Court in Dhaka. Nasrin surrendered to the High Court in August 1994 and was granted bail.
The Bangladesh Supreme Court in Dhaka. Nasrin surrendered to the High Court in August 1994 and was granted bail.Basir Shikder, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The European Parliament in Strasbourg, which awarded Nasrin the Sakharov Prize in 1994.
The European Parliament in Strasbourg, which awarded Nasrin the Sakharov Prize in 1994.Diliff, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Exile

In 1995 she told an Australian interviewer plainly that she did not believe in God and was an atheist; that religion was against human rights and women's rights; and that all religion should be banned, though she did not want to hurt believers. What she shared with Salman Rushdie, she said, was criticism of Islam.21 In the United States Congress a representative, Dan Burton, put it differently, saying that

power-hungry opposition forces have used the hapless feminist writer Taslima Nasrin to get Muslim mobs on the streets3738

In 1998 she went back to Bangladesh to be with her mother, who was dying of cancer, and hid there while crowds demanded her arrest and execution.3940 In 1999 she told UNESCO that she had lived six years in exile, and that religion and freedom of expression could not coexist.4142 In 2000 she said she did not believe in tactics; what she wanted was to abolish religion.43 Her books went on being banned: the memoir in 1999, its sequel in 2002, and in West Bengal her autobiography, a ban a court later lifted.44 In 2002 a Bangladeshi court sentenced her in her absence to a year in prison for offending religious feelings.45

Taslima Nasrin at the Global Atheist Convention, March 2010.
Taslima Nasrin at the Global Atheist Convention, March 2010.Barrylb, Wikimedia Commons

India

From about 2004 she lived in Kolkata.46 In 2006 a Kolkata cleric complained of a reported remark of hers that as a child she had abused Allah and gone unpunished, and admitted offering money to anyone who blackened her face; she said she had been misquoted, that she was not against religion, and that she only advocated women's rights.47 In August 2007 she was attacked at a book launch in Hyderabad; in November riots in Kolkata brought the army onto the streets, and she was moved to Jaipur and then to Delhi.48 India's foreign minister told Parliament that India would shelter her, but expected its guests to refrain from expressions that might hurt the sentiments of the people.4950 She left India in March 2008.48

College Street in Kolkata, the city's book market. Nasrin lived in Kolkata from about 2004 to 2007.
College Street in Kolkata, the city's book market. Nasrin lived in Kolkata from about 2004 to 2007.Biswarup Ganguly, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Secular humanist

In 2009 she called herself a secular humanist; she was not, she said, anti-Islam, but criticised all religions, and her writing had led many people to become agnostics, atheists or secularists.51 In 2015, after Islamist groups in Bangladesh put her on a hit list, the Center for Inquiry brought her to the United States, and she said: please don't call me a Muslim, I am an atheist; Islam should not be spared the scrutiny other religions had faced.525354 In October 2025, receiving a lifetime award from a freethinkers' group in Kochi, she said her criticism of any religion was proportionate to the harm it did, that she had defended persecuted Muslims, Hindus and Christians alike, and that people were free to believe or not believe, but none should be oppressed for it.55 On the timeline, this is her revision, and it is a revision of emphasis: from 1995, when she wanted all religion banned, to 2025, when she defended the right to believe. No source records her giving up her atheism.56

Taslima Nasrin at the Reason Rally in Washington, March 2012.
Taslima Nasrin at the Reason Rally in Washington, March 2012.BDEngler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Taslima Nasrin at the Kerala Literature Festival, 2016.
Taslima Nasrin at the Kerala Literature Festival, 2016.Vengolis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Did her unbelief change shape?

It began, by her memoir's account, in a child's dry eyes at a sermon on hell, and hardened, she said, through the discipline of science. She did not set out to declare it; she set out to write about what was done to women, and her unbelief came out of that, in a letter that called every scripture out of place and out of time. It cost her her country. In exile she said the most radical things she ever said, that all religion should be banned, and then, over thirty years, softened the demand without giving up the conviction: the scriptures were still out of time, but the believer's right to believe was a right like her own.

Salman Rushdie, whose fatwa of 1989 was the precedent everyone compared with hers, has his own chapter in this book.

Footnotes

  1. European Parliament, recital A: EP Resolution on Taslima Nasreen, OJ C 328, 26.10.1998, p. 191, CELEX 51998IP0920. ep-res-1998-0920.txt, ] OJ C 328, 26.10.1998, p. 191. ↩

  2. EP1998, ] recital A. ↩

  3. European Parliament, resolution para. 1: EP1998. ↩

  4. Penal Code 1860, s. 295A (Bangladesh): The Penal Code, 1860 (Bangladesh), ss. 295A and 298, bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-details-11.html. bd-penal-code-1860.txt. ↩

  5. BD-PC, ] s. 295A. ↩

  6. Library of Congress Name Authority File n89261864, ] n89261864; family home in Mymensingh in 1971 per [Tax02. ↩

  7. Tilak D. Gupta (ANF), "Autobiography of a controversial writer" (review of the Bengali Amar Meyebela), The Tribune (Chandigarh), Sunday Reading, 5 Sept 1999:; Meredith Tax, "Taslima's Pilgrimage" (a review of Meyebela with a history of the case), The Nation, issue of 18 Nov 2002 (online 31 Oct 2002):; Michael Deibert, interview "Women's untold stories", Le Monde diplomatique (English), 5 Nov 2009:. ↩ ↩2

  8. (ANF), Amar Meyebela; Tax, Meyebela. Reported at second hand; the original has not been seen. ↩

  9. Tax, Meyebela. ↩

  10. (ANF), Amar Meyebela, ] (Sept 1999); BBC News, "Bangladesh bans new Taslima book", 13 Aug 1999. bbc-1999.txt, ] (13 Aug 1999, calls it "My Childhood"); Tax, Meyebela; IA record meyebelamybengal0000nasa. Accounts differ; see the disputed points. ↩

  11. Tax, Meyebela. ↩

  12. Tax, Meyebela, ] (the termite scene and the two quotations are Tax's). ↩

  13. European Parliament, Sakharov Prize laureate page "Taslima Nasreen - 1994, Bangladesh" (Wayback 7 Aug 2019). europarl-sakharov-1988-98.txt. ↩

  14. EP-Sakharov, ] 1994 entry; UNESCOPRESS release 2004-92, 12 Oct 2004. unesco-2004.txt; James Walsh, "Death to the Author", Time, 15 Aug 1994 (two pages):, ] ("Formerly a practicing physician"); Deibert, "Women's untold stories", ] (her words: she quit public hospitals when the government asked her to stop writing). ↩

  15. Taslima Nasreen: Taslima Nasreen, "For freedom of expression", UNESCO WebWorld News Point of View, 12 Nov 1999 (her declaration to Commission V of UNESCO's General Conference, as delegate of the International Humanist and Ethical Union). Wayback capture of 3 Mar 2016. research/texts/unesco-viewpoint-1999.txt. Licence UNKNOWN; paraphrase until David decides, ] para. 2 (UNESCO Point of View, 12 Nov 1999). ↩

  16. Taslima Nasreen: Nasreen, Licence UNKNOWN, ] para. 2. ↩

  17. Nasreen, Licence UNKNOWN, ] para. 2. ↩

  18. UNESCO04. ↩

  19. Tax, Meyebela; BBC07b; UNESCO04, ] (lists the Ananda Puroshkar). ↩

  20. Tax, Meyebela. ↩ ↩2

  21. Interview with Kerry O'Brien, ABC TV Lateline, 1995 (programme introduction and transcript), printed in The Atheist Newsletter no. 53, July 1995, transcribed by Joe Stanley and republished by the Atheist Foundation of Australia, 20 Apr 2012:. ↩ ↩2

  22. Tax, Meyebela; Lajja, English text with an author's preface dated July 2014, Internet Archive upload lajjataslimanasrin (unauthorised upload of unknown translator and publisher; the OCR has no page numbers or title page). research/texts/lajja-ia-upload.txt; cited by line number of that file. Read for her preface and the novel's plot. Copyright: hers/publisher's; paraphrase only, ] preface; Walsh, "Death to the Author", ] ("banned the book"). ↩ ↩2

  23. Lajja, ] lines 57-67, 1490, 2598-2600, 3653, 8736-8886 of the OCR file. Not verified. ↩

  24. Council of Soldiers of Islam, militant group based in a madrassa in Sylhet, rally of 16 Sept 1993: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, BGD41744.E, 29 July 2003 (quotes Tax's 2002 article). unhcr-queryresponse.txt, ] quoting Tax; same words in [Tax02. ↩

  25. Tax, Meyebela, ] (the article itself, now read; IRB03, ] quotes the same passage). ↩

  26. Walsh, "Death to the Author", ] p. 1; Tax, Meyebela; Lateline95, ] (programme introduction quotes the Statesman line; her answer: she said sharia law should be removed); Amnesty International public statement, AI Index ASA 13/01/98, News Service 200/98, 14 Oct 1998, "Government should ensure safety of Taslima Nasrin" (one page). amnesty-asa13-001-1998.pdf. Read with the PDF reader, ] ("maintains she was misquoted but does favour changes in Islamic law to give more rights to women"); BBC News, "Bangladesh bans third Taslima book", 27 Aug 2002. bbc-2002.txt. ↩

  27. Tax, Meyebela; Walsh, "Death to the Author", ] p. 2 (the "out of place and out of time" sentence). ↩

  28. Tax, Meyebela; Walsh, "Death to the Author", ] p. 1. ↩ ↩2

  29. Lord Avebury (describing her "offence"): Hansard, Lords, 22 Feb 1995, Blasphemy (Abolition) Bill, Lord Avebury. hansard-uk.txt. Open Parliament Licence, ], 22 Feb 1995 (Hansard). ↩

  30. HL-Avebury, ] 22 Feb 1995. ↩

  31. Walsh, "Death to the Author", ] p. 1; Tax, Meyebela. ↩

  32. Mr Lennox-Boyd, FCO minister: Hansard, Commons written answers, 11 July 1994, vol. 246 c426W. hansard-1994-07-11-wa.txt, ] vol. 246 c426W. ↩

  33. HC-1994, ] vol. 246 c426W. ↩

  34. Tax, Meyebela; Lateline95, ] introduction ("last August ... slipped out"). ↩

  35. EP-Sakharov. ↩

  36. EP-Sakharov; EP Resolution on human rights in the world in 1993-1994, para. 22, CELEX 51995IP0078. ep-res-1995-0078.txt, ] para. 22. ↩

  37. Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana), House of Representatives, 22 March 1995: Congressional Record vol. 141 no. 54, 23 March 1995, p. E668 (Rep. Burton). crec-1995-03-23-E668.txt, ] p. E668. ↩

  38. CREC-1995, ] E668. ↩

  39. AI98; Tax, Meyebela; News, "Bangladesh bans new Taslima book"; BBC07b. ↩

  40. EP1998, ] recital B. ↩

  41. Taslima Nasreen: Nasreen, Licence UNKNOWN, ] last para.. ↩

  42. Nasreen, Licence UNKNOWN, ] para. 1. ↩

  43. Tax, Meyebela. ↩

  44. News, "Bangladesh bans new Taslima book"; News, "Bangladesh bans third Taslima book"; BBC07b. ↩

  45. Tax, Meyebela; BBC07b] ("a magistrate's court ... one-year prison sentence"). ↩

  46. Deibert, "Women's untold stories"; Kathleen McCaul, "'Condemned to life as an outsider'", The Guardian, 29 Nov 2007. guardian-2007-11-30.txt; Center for Inquiry press release, 1 June 2015. cfi-2015.txt; Subir Bhaumik, "Cleric quizzed over author threat", BBC News, 27 June 2006. bbc-2006-imam.txt; BBC07b. ↩

  47. Bhaumik, "Cleric quizzed over author threat", ] 27 June 2006. ↩

  48. Deibert, "Women's untold stories"; BBC News, 21 Nov 2007, Kolkata riot. bbc-2007-11-21.txt. [BBC07b] BBC News, "Taslima Nasreen: Controversy's child", Nov 2007. bbc-2007-7108880.txt (it wrongly says she fled in 1995); McCaul, "'Condemned to life as an outsider'"; RFI, "Exiled writer Taslima Nasreen awarded Simone de Beauvoir prize" (undated in the text; 2008). rfi.txt; Mainstream Weekly, "Statement on Taslima Nasreen's Departure from India", 5 Apr 2008, and "Intellectuals demand Indian citizenship", 23 Feb 2008. mainstream631.txt, mainstream535.txt. ↩ ↩2

  49. Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of External Affairs, Lok Sabha, 28 Nov 2007: Lok Sabha, 28 Nov 2007: statement by the Minister of External Affairs (Pranab Mukherjee) regarding the stay of Ms Taslima Nasreen in India. Internet Archive eparlib.nic.in.731536. loksabha-2007-11-28.txt. Government of India document; licence not confirmed, ] (Internet Archive eparlib.nic.in.731536). ↩

  50. LS07; Rajya Sabha, 29 Nov 2007, "Clarifications on the Statements by Ministers: Re. Stay of Ms. Taslima Nasreen in India", Rajya Sabha Debates pp. 220-234 (Internet Archive rsdebate.nic.in.72845). rajyasabha-2007-11-29.txt. Speeches in Hindi and English; Hindi OCR rough, ] pp. 220-223. ↩

  51. Deibert, "Women's untold stories". ↩

  52. EP resolution of 26 Nov 2015, CELEX 52015IP0414, recital F. ep-res-2015-0414.txt, ] recital F. ↩

  53. CFI15, ] (release dated 1 June 2015: "arrived ... last week"). ↩

  54. Suvojit Bagchi, interview "Don't call me Muslim, I am an atheist", The Hindu, 21 Mar 2015 (updated 4 Dec 2021). hindu-2022-atheist.txt. Paraphrase. ↩

  55. Report of her speech on receiving the Litmus 2025 lifetime achievement award, The Hindu, Kochi, 19 Oct 2025. thehindu-2025.txt. Paraphrase. ↩

  56. Tax, Meyebela; Lateline95; Bhaumik, "Cleric quizzed over author threat"; Hindu25. ↩

Sources cited in the notes: EP Resolution on Taslima Nasreen, OJ C 328, 26.10.1998, p. 191, CELEX 51998IP0920. ep-res-1998-0920.txt.; The Penal Code, 1860 (Bangladesh), ss. 295A and 298, bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-details-11.html. bd-penal-code-1860.txt.; Library of Congress Name Authority File n89261864.; Tilak D. Gupta (ANF), "Autobiography of a controversial writer" (review of the Bengali Amar Meyebela), The Tribune (Chandigarh), Sunday Reading, 5 Sept 1999:.; Meredith Tax, "Taslima's Pilgrimage" (a review of Meyebela with a history of the case), The Nation, issue of 18 Nov 2002 (online 31 Oct 2002):.; Michael Deibert, interview "Women's untold stories", Le Monde diplomatique (English), 5 Nov 2009:.; BBC News, "Bangladesh bans new Taslima book", 13 Aug 1999. bbc-1999.txt.; European Parliament, Sakharov Prize laureate page "Taslima Nasreen - 1994, Bangladesh" (Wayback 7 Aug 2019). europarl-sakharov-1988-98.txt.; UNESCOPRESS release 2004-92, 12 Oct 2004. unesco-2004.txt.; James Walsh, "Death to the Author", Time, 15 Aug 1994 (two pages):.; Taslima Nasreen, "For freedom of expression", UNESCO WebWorld News Point of View, 12 Nov 1999 (her declaration to Commission V of UNESCO's General Conference, as delegate of the International Humanist and Ethical Union). Wayback capture of 3 Mar 2016. research/texts/unesco-viewpoint-1999.txt. Licence UNKNOWN; paraphrase until David decides.; Interview with Kerry O'Brien, ABC TV Lateline, 1995 (programme introduction and transcript), printed in The Atheist Newsletter no. 53, July 1995, transcribed by Joe Stanley and republished by the Atheist Foundation of Australia, 20 Apr 2012:.; Lajja, English text with an author's preface dated July 2014, Internet Archive upload lajjataslimanasrin (unauthorised upload of unknown translator and publisher; the OCR has no page numbers or title page). research/texts/lajja-ia-upload.txt; cited by line number of that file. Read for her preface and the novel's plot. Copyright: hers/publisher's; paraphrase only.; Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, BGD41744.E, 29 July 2003 (quotes Tax's 2002 article). unhcr-queryresponse.txt.; Amnesty International public statement, AI Index ASA 13/01/98, News Service 200/98, 14 Oct 1998, "Government should ensure safety of Taslima Nasrin" (one page). amnesty-asa13-001-1998.pdf. Read with the PDF reader.; BBC News, "Bangladesh bans third Taslima book", 27 Aug 2002. bbc-2002.txt.; Hansard, Lords, 22 Feb 1995, Blasphemy (Abolition) Bill, Lord Avebury. hansard-uk.txt. Open Parliament Licence.; Hansard, Commons written answers, 11 July 1994, vol. 246 c426W. hansard-1994-07-11-wa.txt.; EP Resolution on human rights in the world in 1993-1994, para. 22, CELEX 51995IP0078. ep-res-1995-0078.txt.; Congressional Record vol. 141 no. 54, 23 March 1995, p. E668 (Rep. Burton). crec-1995-03-23-E668.txt.; Kathleen McCaul, "'Condemned to life as an outsider'", The Guardian, 29 Nov 2007. guardian-2007-11-30.txt.; Center for Inquiry press release, 1 June 2015. cfi-2015.txt.; Subir Bhaumik, "Cleric quizzed over author threat", BBC News, 27 June 2006. bbc-2006-imam.txt.; BBC News, 21 Nov 2007, Kolkata riot. bbc-2007-11-21.txt. [BBC07b] BBC News, "Taslima Nasreen: Controversy's child", Nov 2007. bbc-2007-7108880.txt (it wrongly says she fled in 1995).; RFI, "Exiled writer Taslima Nasreen awarded Simone de Beauvoir prize" (undated in the text; 2008). rfi.txt.; Mainstream Weekly, "Statement on Taslima Nasreen's Departure from India", 5 Apr 2008, and "Intellectuals demand Indian citizenship", 23 Feb 2008. mainstream631.txt, mainstream535.txt.; Lok Sabha, 28 Nov 2007: statement by the Minister of External Affairs (Pranab Mukherjee) regarding the stay of Ms Taslima Nasreen in India. Internet Archive eparlib.nic.in.731536. loksabha-2007-11-28.txt. Government of India document; licence not confirmed.; Rajya Sabha, 29 Nov 2007, "Clarifications on the Statements by Ministers: Re. Stay of Ms. Taslima Nasreen in India", Rajya Sabha Debates pp. 220-234 (Internet Archive rsdebate.nic.in.72845). rajyasabha-2007-11-29.txt. Speeches in Hindi and English; Hindi OCR rough.; EP resolution of 26 Nov 2015, CELEX 52015IP0414, recital F. ep-res-2015-0414.txt.; Suvojit Bagchi, interview "Don't call me Muslim, I am an atheist", The Hindu, 21 Mar 2015 (updated 4 Dec 2021). hindu-2022-atheist.txt. Paraphrase.; Report of her speech on receiving the Litmus 2025 lifetime achievement award, The Hindu, Kochi, 19 Oct 2025. thehindu-2025.txt. Paraphrase.

In their own words

I was born in a Muslim family, but I became an atheist.

Taslima Nasreen · [UNESCO99] para. 2 (UNESCO Point of View, 12 Nov 1999)

Without reasoning, I found, nothing should be accepted as fact.

Taslima Nasreen · [UNESCO99] para. 2

It is impossible to have coexistence of religion and freedom of expression.

Taslima Nasreen · [UNESCO99] last para.

If the veil is bad for Western women, then it is bad for their oriental sisters as well.

Taslima Nasreen · [UNESCO99] para. 5

to say that the Koran should be interpreted in the light of changes in the social background which have occurred since the 7th century AD

Lord Avebury (describing her "offence") · [HL-Avebury], 22 Feb 1995 (Hansard)

The EU presidency has raised with the Bangladesh authorities our concerns for Ms Nasreen's safety.

Mr Lennox-Boyd, FCO minister · [HC-1994] vol. 246 c426W

in 1994 Mrs Nasreen, one of the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize laureates, had to leave Bangladesh and sought refuge in the EU in order to escape arrest in Bangladesh, having been accused of blasphemy

European Parliament, recital A · [EP1998] OJ C 328, 26.10.1998, p. 191

Declares its support for Taslima Nasreen and reiterates its conviction that freedom of expression is one of the basic human rights

European Parliament, resolution para. 1 · [EP1998]

Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of the citizens of Bangladesh, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.

Penal Code 1860, s. 295A (Bangladesh) · [BD-PC]

The other side

blasphemy and conspiracy against Islam, the Holy Koran and its prophet

Council of Soldiers of Islam, militant group based in a madrassa in Sylhet, rally of 16 Sept 1993 · [IRB03] quoting Tax; same words in [Tax02]

power-hungry opposition forces have used the hapless feminist writer Taslima Nasrin to get Muslim mobs on the streets

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana), House of Representatives, 22 March 1995 · [CREC-1995] p. E668

It is also expected that the guests will refrain from activities and expressions that may hurt the sentiments of our people.

Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of External Affairs, Lok Sabha, 28 Nov 2007 · [LS07] (Internet Archive `eparlib.nic.in.731536`)

Where accounts differ

PointOne accountAnotherHow the page handles it
When she left BangladeshAugust 1994, straight after the bail hearing, on a Stockholm conference visa [Tax02]; [Lateline95] introduction ("last August ... slipped out"); Time, 15 Aug 1994, has her back with relatives after the hearing"At the end of 1994 she escaped to Sweden" after two months in hiding [EP-Sakharov]; BBC 2007 "a few months ... before leaving for Sweden"; BBC 2007 also says "1995"Say she left in 1994 and give August on the weight of three sources; "accounts differ" if the EP date is shown
Where she lived when she won the 1994 Sakharov PrizeEP page: "escaped to Sweden"EP page, same page: "living in exile in France and then in Sweden"Do not name a first country beyond Sweden
Date of her clarifying letter to The Statesman11 May 1994 [Tax02]13 May 1994 [Time94]Say "mid-May 1994"
Whether the Statesman misquoted herShe says she was misquoted and meant the Sharia [Lateline95]; [AI98]; [BBC02]; [Time94] ("misquoted, she insists")The paper quoted her as saying "The Koran should be revised thoroughly" [Lateline95 introduction]; Lord Avebury: she said the Koran should be read in light of social change [HL-Avebury]"Accounts differ"; use her own later words (out of place and out of time)
Size of demonstrations"Several hundred thousand people" [EP-Sakharov]100,000 outside Parliament in Aug 1994 [Time94]; 500 (Sept 1993) and 5,000 Jamaat members (May 1994) [Tax02]; "tens of thousands" [Lateline95]Different events; use Time's figure for the August march and attribute it
Bounty and fatwa sums$1,250 (23 Sept 1993) [Tax02]$2,500 after May 1994 [Tax02]; $2,000 [BBC99]Attribute each figure; avoid a single number
Ban of LajjaBanned in July 1993 by the BNP government [Tax02]"two months after the book was published" [Lajja14 preface, 2014]; Wikiquote's older preface (unverified): "five months later""Banned in 1993"; give no month
Year of the memoir1998 (Wikipedia, map)1999 [BBC02]; Tribune Sept 1999 calls it her "latest"; banned Aug 1999 [BBC99]Use "1999 ban"; do not state a publication year until the book is seen
Return to Bangladesh in 199814 Sept 1998 [EP1998]"earlier this month" in an Amnesty statement dated 14 Oct 1998 [AI98]; Tax: "in 1998, when her mother was dying of cancer""autumn 1998"
When she settled in India and left2004 (her own 2009 words, Guardian 2007, CFI)Visa from Sept 2005 [BBC06] [BBC07b]; EP page: "forced out of West Bengal ... in 2011" [EP-Sakharov]Say "from about 2004"; left Kolkata 21-22 Nov 2007 and India in March 2008 (her words, MW08, RFI)
Identity of the 1993 fatwa groupCouncil of Soldiers of Islam = Sahaba Sainik Parishad [Tax02]"Sahaba Soldiers" (SAWNET); the IRB could not confirm [IRB03]Name "a militant group"
The child's age at the religious scenesTax: the memoir's first scene is 1971, age nineThe sources give no age for the Amirullah or Quran-reading scenesSay "as a child"; no age

List of illustrations

This page uses only public-domain and Creative Commons images; each is credited with its source and licence.

  1. Taslima Nasrin, activist, author, physician — Vera de Kok, 2012-05-26 · Vera de Kok, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0
  2. The Brahmaputra River at Mymensingh, Bangladesh — Baten6448, 2018-08-17 · Baten6448, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0
  3. The Babri Masjid mosque, Faizabad (Ayodhya), India — Samuel Bourne, about 1863-1887 · Samuel Bourne, via Getty Museum open content and Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (Getty Open Content, via Commons; photograph made before 1931)
  4. Sylhet town, Bangladesh — Sabila Enun, 2008-08-17 · Sabila Enun, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0
  5. Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban (National Parliament), Dhaka — Wasiul Bahar, 2023-02-17 · Wasiul Bahar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0
  6. Main building of the Bangladesh Supreme Court, Dhaka — Basir Shikder, 2018-09-30 · Basir Shikder, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0
  7. The hemicycle of the European Parliament, Strasbourg, during a plenary session — Diliff, 2014-02-05 · Diliff, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0
  8. Taslima Nasrin speaking at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention (Melbourne) — Barrylb, 2010-03-13 · Barrylb, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (author's own-work dedication on the Commons file page)
  9. College Street, Kolkata, the city's book market — Biswarup Ganguly, 2010-08-30 · Biswarup Ganguly, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 · CC BY 3.0
  10. Taslima Nasrin speaking at the Reason Rally, National Mall, Washington DC — BDEngler, 2012-03-24 · BDEngler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0
  11. Taslima Nasrin and K. Satchidanandan at the Kerala Literature Festival, 2016 — Vengolis, 2016-02-06 · Vengolis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sources

Tier 1 — the subject's own words (writings, letters, diaries, trial records)

  • [UNESCO99] Taslima Nasreen, "For freedom of expression", UNESCO WebWorld News Point of View, 12 Nov 1999 (her declaration to Commission V of UNESCO's General Conference, as delegate of the International Humanist and Ethical Union). Wayback capture of 3 Mar 2016. research/texts/unesco-viewpoint-1999.txt. Licence UNKNOWN; paraphrase until David decides.
  • [Lajja14] Lajja, English text with an author's preface dated July 2014, Internet Archive upload lajjataslimanasrin (unauthorised upload of unknown translator and publisher; the OCR has no page numbers or title page). research/texts/lajja-ia-upload.txt; cited by line number of that file. Read for her preface and the novel's plot. Copyright: hers/publisher's; paraphrase only.
  • [Lateline95] Interview with Kerry O'Brien, ABC TV Lateline, 1995 (programme introduction and transcript), printed in The Atheist Newsletter no. 53, July 1995, transcribed by Joe Stanley and republished by the Atheist Foundation of Australia, 20 Apr 2012: http://atheistfoundation.org.au/article/taslima-nasrin-a-writer-on-trial/. lateline-1995.txt. ABC copyright; paraphrase.
  • [Deibert09] Michael Deibert, interview "Women's untold stories", Le Monde diplomatique (English), 5 Nov 2009: http://mondediplo.com/blogs/women-s-untold-stories. mondediplo.txt. Paraphrase.
  • [Hindu15] Suvojit Bagchi, interview "Don't call me Muslim, I am an atheist", The Hindu, 21 Mar 2015 (updated 4 Dec 2021). hindu-2022-atheist.txt. Paraphrase.
  • [Hindu25] Report of her speech on receiving the Litmus 2025 lifetime achievement award, The Hindu, Kochi, 19 Oct 2025. thehindu-2025.txt. Paraphrase.
  • [Statesman94] Her letter to The Statesman (Kolkata), 11 May 1994 (Tax) or 13 May 1994 (Time), clarifying the Quran remark. Not seen directly; its text is quoted in [Tax02] and a sentence in [Time94]. Copyright hers; quotation held.
  • [BD-PC] The Penal Code, 1860 (Bangladesh), ss. 295A and 298, bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-details-11.html. bd-penal-code-1860.txt.
  • Her books not read (lending-only on the Internet Archive; the IA text download returned 401 Unauthorized, and I did not try to get round the lending control): Meyebela = My Bengali Girlhood, Steerforth Press, South Royalton, 2002, Gopa Majumdar tr. (meyebelamybengal0000nasa, 330 images); Hanifa Deen, The Crescent and the Pen: the strange journey of Taslima Nasreen, Praeger 2006 (crescentpenstran0000deen); Shame (Penguin, 1994; lajjashame00nasa); also lending-only: Democracy, Indian secularism and the case of Taslima Nasrin (democracyindians0000unse, 2009), Word: on being a [woman] writer (2004), Nothing sacred (2002). Split: A Life (2018) and Exile are not on the Archive.

Tier 2 — official records and reference entries

  • [EP-Sakharov] European Parliament, Sakharov Prize laureate page "Taslima Nasreen - 1994, Bangladesh" (Wayback 7 Aug 2019). europarl-sakharov-1988-98.txt.
  • [EP1998] EP Resolution on Taslima Nasreen, OJ C 328, 26.10.1998, p. 191, CELEX 51998IP0920. ep-res-1998-0920.txt.
  • [EP-Q3594] Written question E-3594/98, answer by Mr Marin, 12 Jan 1999, OJ C 182, 28.6.1999, p. 105. ep-wq-1998-3594.txt.
  • [EP1995] EP Resolution on human rights in the world in 1993-1994, para. 22, CELEX 51995IP0078. ep-res-1995-0078.txt.
  • [EP1994] EP Resolution of 21 April 1994, OJ C 128, 9.5.1994, p. 310, CELEX 51994IP0406. Metadata only; EUR-Lex returned an empty page again on 2026-10-14; text not read.
  • [EP2015] EP resolution of 26 Nov 2015, CELEX 52015IP0414, recital F. ep-res-2015-0414.txt.
  • [HC-1994] Hansard, Commons written answers, 11 July 1994, vol. 246 c426W. hansard-1994-07-11-wa.txt.
  • [HC-1995] Hansard, Commons written answers, 3 May 1995, vol. 259 c249W. hansard-1995-05-03-wa.txt.
  • [HL-Avebury] Hansard, Lords, 22 Feb 1995, Blasphemy (Abolition) Bill, Lord Avebury. hansard-uk.txt. Open Parliament Licence.
  • [CREC-1995] Congressional Record vol. 141 no. 54, 23 March 1995, p. E668 (Rep. Burton). crec-1995-03-23-E668.txt.
  • [CREC-1996] Congressional Record vol. 142 no. 34, 13 March 1996, p. E338 (Rep. Dellums). crec-1996-03-13-E338.txt.
  • [UNESCO04] UNESCOPRESS release 2004-92, 12 Oct 2004. unesco-2004.txt.
  • [LCNAF] Library of Congress Name Authority File n89261864.
  • [IRB03] Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, BGD41744.E, 29 July 2003 (quotes Tax's 2002 article). unhcr-queryresponse.txt.
  • [AI98] Amnesty International public statement, AI Index ASA 13/01/98, News Service 200/98, 14 Oct 1998, "Government should ensure safety of Taslima Nasrin" (one page). amnesty-asa13-001-1998.pdf. Read with the PDF reader.
  • [LS07] Lok Sabha, 28 Nov 2007: statement by the Minister of External Affairs (Pranab Mukherjee) regarding the stay of Ms Taslima Nasreen in India. Internet Archive eparlib.nic.in.731536. loksabha-2007-11-28.txt. Government of India document; licence not confirmed.
  • [RS07] Rajya Sabha, 29 Nov 2007, "Clarifications on the Statements by Ministers: Re. Stay of Ms. Taslima Nasreen in India", Rajya Sabha Debates pp. 220-234 (Internet Archive rsdebate.nic.in.72845). rajyasabha-2007-11-29.txt. Speeches in Hindi and English; Hindi OCR rough.

Tier 3 — popular biographies and journalism

  • [Tax02] Meredith Tax, "Taslima's Pilgrimage" (a review of Meyebela with a history of the case), The Nation, issue of 18 Nov 2002 (online 31 Oct 2002): https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/taslimas-pilgrimage/. nation-tax-2002.txt. No pagination online. Tax was chair of PEN's Women Writers' Committee and corresponded with Nasrin from 1993; she is a partisan witness for Nasrin but a close one. Copyright The Nation; paraphrase only.
  • [Tribune99] Tilak D. Gupta (ANF), "Autobiography of a controversial writer" (review of the Bengali Amar Meyebela), The Tribune (Chandigarh), Sunday Reading, 5 Sept 1999: https://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99sep05/sunday/head10.htm. tribune-1999.txt.
  • [Time94] James Walsh, "Death to the Author", Time, 15 Aug 1994 (two pages): https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,981247,00.html. time-1994-08-15.txt, time-1994-08-15-p2.txt.
  • [Guardian07] Kathleen McCaul, "'Condemned to life as an outsider'", The Guardian, 29 Nov 2007. guardian-2007-11-30.txt.
  • [BBC99] BBC News, "Bangladesh bans new Taslima book", 13 Aug 1999. bbc-1999.txt.
  • [BBC02] BBC News, "Bangladesh bans third Taslima book", 27 Aug 2002. bbc-2002.txt.
  • [BBC06] Subir Bhaumik, "Cleric quizzed over author threat", BBC News, 27 June 2006. bbc-2006-imam.txt.
  • [BBC07a] BBC News, 21 Nov 2007, Kolkata riot. bbc-2007-11-21.txt. [BBC07b] BBC News, "Taslima Nasreen: Controversy's child", Nov 2007. bbc-2007-7108880.txt (it wrongly says she fled in 1995).
  • [MW08] Mainstream Weekly, "Statement on Taslima Nasreen's Departure from India", 5 Apr 2008, and "Intellectuals demand Indian citizenship", 23 Feb 2008. mainstream631.txt, mainstream535.txt.
  • [RFI08] RFI, "Exiled writer Taslima Nasreen awarded Simone de Beauvoir prize" (undated in the text; 2008). rfi.txt.
  • [CFI15] Center for Inquiry press release, 1 June 2015. cfi-2015.txt.
  • [Humanite] L'Humanite, 5 Nov 1994. humanite.txt.
  • [FileRoom] NCAC FileRoom case 1058: weak; not cited for any claim.
  • Leads still not read: Hanifa Deen (2006, lending); Meredith Tax, PEN background paper of 5 Nov 1993; Village Voice 2002 (Davis) interview; Hasan, J. Postcolonial Writing 46(5), 2010; Zafar, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 6(3) 2005; Garzilli, J. South Asia Women Studies 3(1), 1997; Time Higher Education 24 Feb 1995 (Targett); the Statesman interview of May 1994.

Tier 4 — maps to other sources only (Wikipedia and similar). Never cited in the script.

  • Wikipedia, "Taslima Nasrin", "Lajja (novel)", "Meyebela, My Bengali Girlhood"; Wikiquote "Taslima Nasrin". Used to find the leads above. Wikiquote lists an older Lajja preface ("banned by the government five months later", "over 60,000 copies") that I did not see in any scan: unverified.

Opposition sources — contemporary critics and religious responses

  • [IRB03] / [Tax02]: the Council of Soldiers of Islam's September 1993 demands, with the May 1994 clerics' "apostate appointed by imperialist forces" and the Jamaat rally.
  • [BBC06]: Imam Barkati (2006) and Hasan Ahmed Irfan, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Bengal: "She should leave this place and go if she has a problem with Muslims" (BBC copyright; paraphrase).
  • [Guardian07]: Dr Alum Mansoor, general secretary of the All India Milli Council: the protests were "a culmination of the offence her writing has caused over the years" (Guardian copyright; paraphrase).
  • [RS07]: Shahid Siddiqui (Rajya Sabha, speaking in Hindi, 29 Nov 2007): India sheltered her as a guest, but her writing wounds the hearts of millions; she has not apologised; he asks whether she has been given licence to write about the Prophet and about revising the Quran; compares the treatment of M. F. Husain; "our country is not Europe or America" where there is no respect for one's own religion or another's (my paraphrase of the OCR Hindi, pp. 221-222).
  • [CREC-1995]: Rep. Burton's political reading.
  • [LS07]: the Government of India's condition for hospitality.
  • Still missing: any clerical statement or Bangladeshi court record from 1993-94 in a free source.