Taslima Nasrin Again in Jeopardy

A.H.A. Joins Effort to Save Her

The death sentence issued by fundamentalist Muslims against thirty-six-year-old Taslima Nasrin, the controversial Bangladeshi author and gynecologist, has been renewed now that she has voluntarily returned to Bangladesh with her dying mother. The country's borders have been sealed, and hundreds of demonstrators march daily in the streets of Dhaka, the capital, demanding her execution. Dr. Nasrin's most recent communication has been an e-mail sent on October 14 to one of her editors, fellow humanist Warren Allen Smith, in which she says, "I am still alive in hiding, not yet arrested by police, not yet killed by the fundamentalists. My mother's situation is getting worse. I don't know what is going to happen." Nasrin's two most controversial books are Selected Column — a collection of nonfiction writings that includes her advice that Muslim law be changed to advance women's rights — and Shame — a novel that strongly criticizes Muslims and supports sex outside of marriage. In 1993, these resulted in calls for her death by extremist Muslim groups. Then, in 1994, the government of Bangladesh dredged up an 1860 British colonial law against "outraging religious feelings" and charged her with its violation. This charge is unbailable and conviction carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail. Nasrin managed, however, to flee the country and secure asylum in Stockholm, Sweden.

After that, she spent the next four years traveling widely in Europe and the Americas, writing poetry, and addressing audiences of writers, feminists, and humanists. But she wasn't happy, a fact she revealed in an October interview in the Independent of Bangladesh, in which she said, "I wanted to come back to my country so much. I never had a home in the four years I was in the West. The European countries were like bus stops for me — I was waiting for the bus to come home. And when I learned that my mother had terminal cancer I became desperate."

So, in August, Nasrin flew her mother from Bangladesh to New York City's Sloan-Kettering Hospital for treatment of colon cancer. When her mother's condition was declared hopeless, Nasrin — against the advice of friends as well as the Bangladesh government — decided to accompany her mother back home. She entered Bangladesh without incident on September 14 but, because she was recognized on the plane, word of her arrival quickly spread. Demonstrations against her commenced almost immediately, and on September 24 the Dhaka General Magistrates' Court issued a warrant for her arrest and for the confiscation of all her property. On October 5, through her lawyer, Nasrin petitioned the Bangladesh government for protection. In response, Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad stated on October 8 that, because Nasrin is a Bangladesh citizen, she is entitled to protection against religiously-motivated acts of lawless violence and would be treated humanely if in government custody. However, Nasrin would still have to stand trial for "hurting the religious sentiment of the people." This was not what Nasrin had hoped to hear and, the very next day, over two thousand Muslim fundamentalists demonstrated in Dhaka, demanding that the country's liberal government strengthen the blasphemy law so that Nasrin, if found guilty, could be hanged. Rioting ensued, resulting in fifty-five injuries and sixteen arrests. With all these developments, numerous humanist, human rights, and other organizations have spoken out. For example, on October 6, the American Humanist Association sent letters in support of Nasrin to the prime minister of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh ambassador in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. ambassador in Bangladesh. A.H.A. President Edd Doerr, who wrote the letters, also contacted the U.S. State Department and was informed that the Clinton administration is urging that Bangladesh ensure Nasrin's safety out of the country. Dr. James Prescott, head of the Institute of Humanistic Science (an A.H.A. chapter), inspired these letters and has been actively encouraging other humanists all over the world take action. His preferred approach, when writing to U.S. officials, is to cite the recently-passed Freedom from Religious Persecution Act of 1998.

Other organizations which have similarly written to or contacted various officials include the International Humanist and Ethical Union, the European Humanist Federation, the German Humanist Association, the Berlin board of the German Green Party, the National Secular Society of the United Kingdom, the Humanist Association of Canada, the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Bergen County Ethical Culture Society in New Jersey. On October 8, in a surprise appearance at the world famous Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, author Salman Rushdie called for public support of Taslima Nasrin in order to put international pressure on the Bangladesh government. On October 13, the Coordinating Council for Human Rights in Bangladesh, representing some 200 human rights and development organizations there, declared that Nasrin has a right to be in her native land and that religious protesters should not be allowed to take the law into their own hands. Amnesty International also issued a statement, calling on the government of Bangladesh to ensure Nasrin's safety and drop all charges of blasphemy against her. They further stated that, if Nasrin is imprisoned on such grounds, the organization will view her as a prisoner of conscience and campaign for her immediate and unconditional release. More recently, on October 19, American Atheists launched a demonstration outside the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington D.C. And, on October 25, A.H.A. board member Tom Ferrick, Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University, called a meeting at the university to encourage public action and raise funds on Nasrin's behalf.