15 June 1998 Comment by Taslima Nasrin

From: Taslima Nasrin, c/o Warren Allen Smith, 31 Jane Street (10-D),

NewYork, NY 10014 (212) 366-6481 <wasm@idt.net>

To: Op-Ed Page Editor,The New York Times, 229 West 43rd Street, New

York, NY 10036

Newspapers and journals in the United States often refer to India as

being "the largest democracy in the world. I, for one, am not favorably

impressed by its so-called "democracy."

My native country of Bangladesh, which once was a part of India, is

also called a democracy. The government of that nation is controlled by

religious fundamentalists. In 1993 a fatwa was issued against me and a

monetary reward offered to anyone who would kill me. Several thousand

zealots marched through Dhaka demanding my death. My 1992 novel,

"Shame," about the destroying in India of an ancient mosque in Ayodhya,

and my several volumes of poetry were burned. I was ordered to be

hanged.

As a result I was forced to hide in my own country until, with the help

of some western governments, I was able to flee and seek asylum in

Sweden where I now reside, thanks to its humanistic leaders.

Although Bangladesh is proud to call itself a democracy and accepted

most of the clauses of the U. N. Human Rights Convention, its rulers

still refuse to cancel the fatwa that calls for my execution. My

"crime" is not that as a physician or as a poet or as a novelist I have

killed anyone. My crime is that my country’s "democracy" objects to the

outlook which is shown in my writing. I have views which are different

from that of the majority. My views, admittedly, are seen as being

blasphemous in their eyes. Freedom of expression, in short, is a term

totally unknown to this "democratic" Muslim country.

When I asked "the world’s largest democracy" to allow me entry, I was

turned down. In fact, my application for a visa has been refused more

than seven times by India’s "democratic" government. The reason, I have

been informed unofficially, is that the government does not want to lose

votes of the Muslim minority community in the next elections.

Put yourself in my position. I have been forced to leave my native

country, a democracy, because I speak openly about what I think is

wrong.

Meanwhile, I am desperate to see my mother who has just been diagnosed

with advanced colon cancer and liver metastasis. The

religious-fundamentalist "democracy" of Bangladesh will not allow me to

return to be with her at the end. Were I to attempt a return now, my

mother, my family, and my friends could well suffer the spectacle of

seeing me tried once again, found guilty once again, and hanged by the

neck in the public square before my thirty-sixth birthday.

Some matters are more cruel than A-bomb tests, particularly when

"democracies" are involved.

Dr. Nasrin, the Bangladeshi poet-novelist-gynecologist who has taken