NEW DELHI, 8 February (PTI): With just eight days left for the expiry of her visa, a worried Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen hoped that India will not “turn its back” on her and that it will grant extension on time to help her stay on.
She has been living in exile since 1994 after fundamentalists in Bangladesh issued a fatwa against her because of her writings.
Taslima (45) said she is also pinning her hopes on External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjees statement in Parliament about Indias reputation for hospitality and that it welcomed guests as long as they respected the sentiments of people.
– I am always thinking about my stay. I am hopeful with eight days to go before the expiry of my visa, the government will extend it on time, the controversial writer told PTI on phone from her safe house in Delhi.
If she was thrown out, “it will amount to murder of my most cherished ideals, perhaps a fate far worse than I could meet at the hands of any (islamic) fundamentalists”, said Taslima, who was spirited out of Kolkata (Calcutta) on November 22 last year following violence after a demand by a minority organisation that her visa be cancelled.
– If India turns its back on me I have nowhere to go, no means to survive. Even after all that has happened, I still believe, I still dream, that for a sincere, honest, secular writer, India is the safest refuge, the only refuge, said Taslima.
The internationally renowned author also said that she still believed that she should be able to spend the rest of her life in the country, which she loved. – India is my country, my home, noted she.
The writer, who cannot meet her friends and well wishers and can only contact them through e-mail or phone, said though she had to spend this New Years day alone, it perhaps would not be the same next year.
Asked how she was spending her time, Taslima said that books and newspapers were her sole companions.
She also tried to write but was sometimes unable to concentrate under the present circumstances for the past two and half months after she left this metropolis.
– At times I write for hours in the morning, while at times I sit by myself, she said.
To a question, she said the draft of the autobiographical Nei Kichu Nei (There is Nothing) could not be completed by her. The book was originally scheduled to be published at the Kolkata Book Fair, which was not held after a Calcutta High Court directive.
She warmly appreciated the support from UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Madanjeet Singh and personalities like Mahasweta Devi and Muchkund Dubey.
Tilføjelse:
Taslima Nasreen måtte i november 2007 gå under jorden som følge af indiske muslimers demonstrationer mod hendes seneste bog i Calcutta/Kolkata, hvor Nasreen har boet siden 2005.
Demonstrationernes voldsomhed betød, at de indiske myndigheder skjulte Nasreen på en ukendt adresse uden for New Delhi.
I august sidste år måtte den erklærede ateist beskyttes mod en ophidset folkemængde, da hun deltog i en litteraturoplæsning i den sydindiske by Hyderabad. Her blev hun truet med halshugning. I den nordindiske delstat Uttar Pradesh blev der af imamer i marts 07 udsat en dusør på 75.000 kr. for Nasreens liv. I Indien bor der 140 mio. muslimer.
Flere af hendes religions-kritiske bøger er forbudt i Bangladesh. Herfra flygtede Taslima Nasreen i 1994. Samme år tildelte Europaparlamentet hende Sakharov-Prisen.
