By K.Govindan ONCE AGAIN last week Muslim fundamentalists took to the streets of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, demanding the death of the feminist writer Taslima Nasreen.
On 24 September a group of clerics known as the 'Soldiers of Islam' passed a fatwa (verdict) of death and offered a reward of 50,000 takas for execution of sentence.
Nasreen's offence was to pen a novella called Lajja ('Shame') which addresses the discrimination faced by the Hindu minority in Bangladesh.
Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, on December 6 1992 and the anti-muslim rioting that followed, many Hindu temples and Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh were attacked.
Outraged by this fundamentalist backlash, Nasreen wrote a story revolving around a Hindu family in Dhaka which was part reportage and part fiction highlighting the traumas they underwent.
This book sold 60,000 copies in a six-month period before it was banned by the Government. This in a country with a literacy rate of only Exploited: Bengali women 32% was remarkable.
The anger these Muslim clerics felt arose as well from the themes that Nasreen tackles in her journalism as well as the books.
Exploitation
She has exposed the sexual exploitation of women in Bangladeshi society tracing it to both patriarchalism and the gender bias of religious laws. As a trained gynaecologist she has not shied away from making explicit references to sex and sexual organs in her writings.
While many accuse her of being anti-men Nasreen defends herself saying, I am not against any individual, but against a system that teaches men to treat women as commodities, as mere objects of enjoyment' Unfortunately the contents of her book were used by the right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party to press their case for their chauvinist anti-muslim ideology in India. They justify the Hinduization of India and the oppression of its religious minorities using the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
In response to this, Nasreen has expanded her book making clear her opposition to religious bigotry of any kind. This book is to be published in neighbouring West Bengal where she is widely read.
The Bangladeshi government headed by a woman, Khaleda Zia, has denied Taslima Nasreen any police protection.
Students and left intellectuals have organised many protests condemning the fatwa and writers in West Bengal have organised a signature campaign to raise public awareness of her situation.
Nasreen remains defiant, 'I am not afraid. I am only sick of the captive life I'm leading now. If I die, I die. I don't fear death. But I want to die only after writing more'.
Further Information, Alliance Against Communalism and for Democracy In South Asia, 6A South Road, Southall, Middlesex, UBI IRT Every retreat and concession they have made to the employers and the government has simply fuelled and encouraded the offensive against jobs, wages, conditions and union rights.
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Systems AGM with Jeremy Corbyn and Carole Tonge 11am-3.30pm London de tails 404 Camden Road Ni SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 54, December 11 1993, Page 15 Thursday 16 Their Future or Ours? Saturday 29 Bloody Sunday demo London