Taslima Nasreen hits out at Sheikh Hasina: ‘Threw me out to please Islamists… same Islamists have forced her to leave country’

“Hasina in order to please Islamists threw me out of my country in 1999 after I entered Bangladesh to see my mother in her deathbed and never allowed me to enter the country again. The same Islamists have been in the student movement who forced Hasina to leave the country today,” Nasreen posted over X.

Nasreen, a controversial literary figure in Bangladesh due to her staunch take on patriarchy, the Islamic Code of Law and sexually descriptive texts, was arrested and later banished from her own country in 1994 as pressure from the Islamic conservatives loomed on the then Sheikh Hasina government.

The author drew global attention in 1993 when a fatwa was issued against her because of her infamous book ‘Lajja’, based on the persecution of a Hindu family by Muslims. She took refuge in India in 2004 and stayed in Kolkata. However, she was compelled to leave West Bengal after violent protests by Muslims against her writings in 2007. She was also in Sweden briefly during her exile. As of 2017, she was living in New Delhi.

Calling out Hasina for the current hostility in Bangladesh, Nasreen said “She was responsible for her situation. She made Islamists to grow. She allowed her people to involve in corruption. Now Bangladesh must not become like Pakistan. Army must not rule. Political parties should bring democracy & secularism.”

After Sheikh Hasina’s exit, the Bangladesh army chief has announced that an interim government has been formed. However, student protesters have insisted that they will only accept a government with Nobel prize laureate Muhammad Yunus as chief advisor.

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