When writer is the story

1994: Instead of acting against those who had issued the threats, the Bangladesh government files a case against her for blasphemy. An arrest warrant is issued, and Taslima goes into hiding. Finally, after bail is granted, she goes into exile. The same year she wins the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, given by the European Parliament. Back home clerics demand that she be brought back and tried under the Sharia law, “which provides for death sentence against such sinners”

1998: Her mother seriously ill, Taslima secretly returns to Bangladesh from Sweden and surrenders to the Bangladesh High Court. Taslima’s mother dies in early 1999. As the death threats don’t cease, Taslima again returns to Sweden

1999: Taslima releases the first volume of her autobiography, Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood), in which she mentions that she had been sexually abused by family members. The Bangadesh government bans the book

2002: The second volume of her autobiography, Utal Hawa, is banned by the country

2003

The third volume of her autobiography, Ka (Speak Up), is also banned, by the Bangladesh High Court. Bangadeshi writer Syed Shamshul Haque complains about her description of a three-night-long sexual encounter between the pair. Passages on other alleged sexual encounters, including with some of Kolkata’s leading literary figures, have many of her supporters protesting as well. Taslima holds that the book is not vulgar but deals with women’s emancipation

• Ka is released under the name Dwikhandit in India. In November that year, the West Bengal government bans it, on the grounds that it could incite communal violence. But the ban is lifted by the high court in September 2004

• As a protest against censorship, Taslima puts Amar Meyebela and Dwikhandit on the Internet for anyone to read for free

2004

Taslima leaves Sweden, moves to Kolkata

• Syed Noorur Rehaman Barkati, the head priest of Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan mosque, admits to offering money to anyone who “blackens” Taslima’s face. He also accuses her of being a Jewish spy

• The fourth volume of her autobiography, Sei Sob Ondhokar, is also banned by the government of Bangladesh, on the grounds that it carries objectionable passages about the Prophet and can incite violence

2005: Taslima is booed off the stage by a large Bengali crowd attending the North American Bengali Conference at Madison Square Garden when she tries to read an anti-war poem entitled America

2007

The All India Ittehad Millat Council of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, offers Rs 5 lakh for her beheading. The group’s president, Tauqir Raza Khan, says the only way the bounty would be lifted is if Taslima “apologises, burns her books and leaves”

AUGUST: Taslima is physically attacked with bouquets, flower-pots and chairs at the Hyderabad Press Club during the launch of her book Shodh in Telugu. The attackers, who include three MLAs of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), accuse her of humiliating Islam

NOVEMBER: Violent protests on Kolkata streets by the All India Minorities Forum demanding that Taslima move out of the city. Her visa is due for renewal in February 2008. Already under pressure over the Nandigram violence, the West Bengal government panics, calls in the Army. Taslima is flown to Jaipur, under controversial circumstances