Bengali writer Taslima Nasreen was beheaded yesterday by Islamist terrorists at her home in New Delhi where she had been living in exile. A video of the decapitation was posted on social media sites this morning.
It was inevitable. Author of 41 books of poetry, essays, and novels, Ms Nasreen, known for her powerful feminist writings against the injustices and inequalities of religions, had to live under a succession of death fatwas. She was forced to leave her country, Bangladesh, in 1994, not long after the publication of her novel Lajja, which she wrote during her duty hours as an anesthetist in Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Despite repeated bans on her books and threats on her life, Ms Nasreen never censored herself. Many people said that she was brave; others called her stupid. Everyone agreed that she was an extremely disobedient woman.
Ms Nasreen once wrote, ‘I am victim of blasphemy laws. These laws provoke people to kill us the blasphemers. There are cases filed against me by governments and religious fundamentalists in India and Bangladesh. But we are the people who are trying to change the society by resisting fundamentalism and advocating secularism.’
An atheist, Ms Nasreen was against all kinds of violence, including the death penalty. Critical of patriarchal systems such as marriage and prostitution, she believed in love, and, in turn, was loved by her readers.
Although she managed to acquire a semblance of domestic normalcy in her New Delhi apartment, Ms Nasreen considered herself “homeless everywhere”. She was never allowed to return to the country of her birth. She was also not allowed to reside in West Bengal where she had lived for four years before her deportation in 2007.
Ms Nasreen, however, had a great sense of humor. It could be sensed in the extremely graphic video of her execution. Bemused with her masked assassin struggling with his rather blunt blade, she asked him to pick up a much sharper knife from her kitchen that she had got from Germany.
Ms Nasreen had donated her body for research to a medical college in Kolkata, but the West Bengal government is reluctant to receive her. Her own country, too, does not want to do anything with her. At the moment, Ms Nasreen is lying unclaimed in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
I must say that I am thankful that I was not one
of your patients while you were writing ‘Lajja’.
Luckily I picked up your name from the media at the same
time that I was trying to understand the ‘Islamic’ mind in
the context of Cold-War diplomacy and the need for fanatics
to encircle Communist Russia.
cf “The Koran and the Kalashnikov”.
In 1994 when you were writing ‘Lajja’
Anyway let’s move on to your obituary in the same vein…
Many people gloated at Tasleema’s death but as usual there were a whole lot
of worms and other vermin to feed on her body and soul. The worst of these were called
“PLAGIARISM” and “MIS-TRANSLATION”.
Self boasting!!!!
I on that day wont keep any R.I.P on your face book comments section because I respect your very own individual rational thought’s (rather then calling them as sentiment’s) even though you wont exist as a person there after as you don’t believe in “life/peace after” death and I also feel that kind of send off to a person like you who was already gone beats the very purpose of you trying to inject “some sanity” in people’s mind all these years to cultivate little rationality , humanity & out of box thinking rather then living like Goats in Jungle which follow one another for grazing (read it as Knowledge here) .
– Just another follower
P.S. That day for sure out of peer pressure media from your country(speaking the country you have born) “hopefully” hypes you and own’s you like hell (At least after death some space to Live in their Hearts for few minutes “I Guess” , Purely Guess !! )
The news of the killing of famous Bengali writer and activist Taslima Nasreen spread shock wave among her admirers in the country, a large number of whom have already started gathering outside the AIIMS with flowers, banners and play cards in their hands expressing their grief, sorrow for and their solidarity to the slain writer. The social media is full of condolences and obituaries for the celebrated writer who not only managed to make adversaries within the conservative Islamic society but also earned a cult following among her thousands of admirers and well wishers. Beyond all expectations, our Dhaka correspondent adds, thousands of people in the capital of Bangladesh came out on the streets spontaneously on hearing the shocking news. The emotional multitude were chanting slogans in support of Taslima Nasreen and against her dastardly killers. Feeling the pulse of the masses, the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came out with a strong condemnation of the killers of Ms Nasreen and offered all co-operation of her country in tracking down the murderers of the celebrated writer, raising apprehensions that there might be some links between the killers of Ms Nasreen and the extremes groups operating in Bangladesh, the country of Taslima Nasreen’s birth. Sheikh Hasina convened an emergent meeting of her Cabinet to take a decision on whether the body of the Bangladeshi writer could be allowed to be taken back to the country for Islamic burial in contravention of the slain author’s pledge for donating her body for medical research. The PM of India, meanwhile, in a televised address to the nation vowed to track down and bring the culprits to justice as soon as possible.
Curiously though, a few of Ms. Nasreen’s avid followers were seen publicly demanding capital punishment for her murderers although the slain activist was staunchly opposed to capital punishment throughout her eventful and extraordinary life.
We shall come back to you as the story of the unfortunate event unfolds. Please stay tuned.
Thanks.
This made me want to weep, because someday it may be true.
“Everyone agreed that she was an extremely disobedient woman.”
Hahaha that’s a beautiful tribute.
Disobedient women unite!
“Ms Nasreen had donated her body for research to a medical college in Kolkata, but the West Bengal government is reluctant to receive her. Her own country, too, does not want to do anything with her. At the moment, Ms Nasreen is lying unclaimed in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.”
Well in that case I suppose you’ll have to be buried. What’ll be on your tombstone ‘If you can keep your head, while all about you are losing theirs…’ perhaps?