Mainstream Weekly

Change Is Such Hard Work

Taslima Nasreen — 2011-05-24T17:07:35Z

Noted writer and novelist Taslima Nasreen wrote the following piece for The Times of India where it was published. However, after its publication she sent the original piece to the Mainstream editor because in the daily's Delhi edition the last part was abridged. We are carrying the original in full, with the author's permission, for the benefit of our readers.
It is my conviction that most people who voted for Trinamul voted not because of love for or confidence in the party but from (…)

- 2011

Need to Escape from the Death Chamber

Taslima Nasreen — 2008-03-22T01:20:00Z

[(The following is a detailed explanation as to why the Bangladeshi author-in-exile, Taslima Nasreen, was finally forced to leave her adopted homeland, Bharatvarsha. This is an open indictment of the Central authorities in New Delhi and the West Bengal Government in Kolkata directly responsible for driving her out of the country in order to appease the Muslim fundamentalists. —Editor)]
I used to call this the torture chamber. I gradually came to realise that it was the chamber of (…)

- March 22, 2008

Are you Women or Just Representing Husbands and Fathers?

Taslima Nasreen — 2008-03-16T22:29:37Z

[(The following piece, written by Taslima Nasreen in the nineties, brings out her views on women's emancipation. Incidentally she is still at an undisclosed location in or near the Capital and not allowed to meet anyone, that is, in virtual imprisonment.)]
The other day, a foreign gentleman and I were talking about Bangladesh. He was rather bemused by the fact that Bangladesh had a woman prime Minister. “The women of your country are so liberated that you even have a woman Prime Minister!” (…)

- March 15, 2008

The Room in which I am Forced . . .

Taslima Nasreen — 2008-03-01T18:11:00Z

The room in which I now live has a closed window, A window that I cannot open at will. The window's covered with a heavy curtain that I cannot move at will. I live in a room now, Where I cannot open the door at will, cannot cross the threshold. I live in a room, where the only other living inhabitants are Two sickly lizards on the wall. No man or any creature resembling a man is a allowed here. I live in a room where I find it a great strain to breathe.
There's no sound around, but for (…)

- March 1, 2008

CCU to CCU (Coronary Care Unit to Calcutta)

Taslima Nasreen — 2008-02-24T18:58:06Z

Away from home, Away from my dear cat, my books and papers, my friends, Away from my life, With my face and head covered in a quilt stinking of uncertainty, Lying for days on end Lying one knows not where, With the heart gnawed and clawed viciously.
Then when the heart stops, the inevitable CCU, To draw life somehow back from the edge, Back to throbbing, the heart would like to return, the sick body seeks home, To return to the cat, to friends, to the cherished touch. The mind journeys (…)

- February 23, 2008

Ejection from India would mean Cold-blooded Murder of my Most Cherished Ideals

Taslima Nasreen — 2008-02-16T22:43:00Z

Although I was not born an Indian, there is very little about my appearance, my tastes, my habits and my traditions to distinguish me from a daughter of the soil. My father was born before Partition; the strange history of this subcontinent made him a citizen of three states, his daughter a national of two. In a village in what was then East Bengal, there once lived a poor farmer by the name of Haradhan Sarkar, one of whose sons, Komol, driven to fury by zamindari oppression, converted to (…)

- February 16, 2008