Taslima all for Uniform Civil Code

She is the surprise entry at the 10th edition of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival and lends a dramatic twist to the proceedings with her no-holds-barred opinion.

Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen who has been in exile for over two decades questions all those who have put a price on her head. More importantly, those like then Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and incumbent Mamata Banerjee come under her circle of censure. They have stood by “misguided zealots, the fatwabaaz”, as she puts it while calling herself the “victim”.

Unsparing in her criticism of religious fanatics of all hues, she states: “I don’t believe in religion, nor in nationalism. I am all for one world.” India is where she feels at home. Yet she has no compunctions in questioning its so-called secular ethos. Attacked both by right-wingers and Islamic fundamentalists, she wants to exercise her right to criticise religions, particularly Islam. “Islamic societies have to learn to be tolerant and accept criticism.”

Religion, she says, is a personal belief, adding she respects those who repose faith in it. But then her right not to believe should be equally respected.

All for the Uniform Civil Code in India, she is rather forceful in stating: “Why should Muslim women be denied equal democratic rights, why should religion decide laws? Hindu personal laws too did not grant Hindu women equal rights like the right to divorce and property rights. But if they are being governed by modern rights, why shouldn’t Muslim women be? All laws should be based on equality and justice. The state has to be secular and should have nothing to do with religion.”

Taslima, a Swedish citizen, is equally pained at the treatment meted out to her in India as in her home country. In places like Delhi, she shares how she was denied even a place of rent by the very Bengali people who openly expressed admiration for her writing.

Interestingly, those who turned against her in Bangladesh initially admired the first part of her biography where she came across as a subservient tortured woman. But the moment she wrote about her sexuality and spoke about her right over her body, she was hounded.

While she continues to stand for one world, humanism and rationalism, those on the other side continue to oppose her. At the JLF, too, a small group owing allegiance to the Muslim Front, Zamaat-E-Islam Foundation, protested the Lajja writer’s presence at the festival.