CULTURE AND LITERATURE IN BANGLADESH
Culture is taken very seriously in Bangladesh. It is one of the few places where people take to the streets to demand a cultural center. Culture is alive in the cities and the countryside. Village culture is unique, developing its own forms of music, dance and drama. Artists are largely self-supporting. Relatively little support for the arts comes from the government which doesn’t bring in that much tax revenue and has to shell out money for other things. The Bangla Academy in Dhaka provides support for some artists, particularly writers and poets, which are arguably Bangladesh’s and Bengal’s greatest contribution to the arts. Many artists sell aesthetic works that have utilitarian functions. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
According to the “World Press Encyclopedia”: “Despite the religious affinity with the Islamic world, culturally Bangladeshis feel closer to the speakers of the Bengali language in the Indian part of Bengal, sharing with them the rich cultural traditions manifested in literature, music and the arts. The press and media reflect such a love among the citizens of Bangladesh and regularly publish special articles and features on Bengali culture. [Source: “World Press Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc., 2003]
According to “Cities of the World” and “Countries and Their Cultures”: “Bangladeshis take great pride in their rich and subtle language, Bangla, and in its long tradition of literature, poetry, and music. Assertion of their national identity and language became a prime rallying point during the Bangladeshis' struggle for independence from West Pakistan and remains a dominant theme in all sectors of life and culture... Plays are traditionally an important part of village life, and traveling shows stop throughout the countryside. Television dramas portray family relationships, love, and economic advantage and disadvantage. Plays in the cities, particularly in Dhaka, are attended by the educated young. [Source: “Cities of the World” , The Gale Group Inc. 2002; “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
In an article on Bangladeshi village life, Kamran Nahar wrote: “Culture is called ‘the total way of life of a people’. John H. Bodley says, ‘Culture involves at least three components: what people think, what they do, and the material products they produce. It includes traditional shared beliefs, values, customs, behavior, and artifacts of the members of a society, transmitted from generation to generation through socialization. Also, these components will partly be changed in every age by adapting themselves with modern ideas and technology. There is a smell of accordance in the culture of Bangladesh, especially of rural areas, while her most parts are villages. The same style of housing, clothing, food, ideas, values etc. are found there. Even folk tales, literature, puzzles, paradoxes, songs and dances of various areas are, though with a little difference, very close to each other. In spite of all these accordance in the culture of Bangladesh, every village has originality with some unique features and tradition, different from the others’, as an individual’s behaviors are, in many ways, different from those of a crowd. [Source: “Bangladesh Culture: A Study of the South Para of Village ‘Silimpur’” by Kamrun Nahar, September 2, 2006]
Bengali Culture and Intellectual Life
Bengalis are proud of their achievements in the arts. West Bengal produced the Nobel laureates Rabibdranth Tagore (literature) and Amartya Sen (economics) "The Bengali," one man told Smithsonian magazine, "has always set himself up to think that God put him on earth to be a poet or a writer, and other races to do the dirty work."
Describing a Bengali intellectual, Barry Bearak wrote in the New York Times, he is "by culture and self-assertion of superior brainpower and spirit, adept at debating all isms and wasms of political thought. He is the Indian who effortlessly quotes Marx and Marshall McLuhan, all the while sipping coffee and scribbling poems on a paper napkin."
The Bengali playwright and government official Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told the New York Times, "Intellectually, I humbly proclaim we are more advanced than anyone else. We discussed the great questions: What is postmodernism? What does Noam Chomsky have to say about this or that?" Some Bengali intellectuals claim they know more about the United States than most Americans.
Bengalis and people from Calcutta has a reputation for being intellectual, romantic and outward-looking like characters in a Satyajit Ray movie. Even poor Muslim families in the slums of Calcutta hold reading of Pride and Prejudice. When Hindu extremist tried to shut down a showing of the controversial film Fire in Calcutta the audience ought back.
Bengali Literature
Urban Bengalis have produced some of South Asia’s finest literary works, including novels, short stories, poetry. West Bengal produced the Nobel laureate Rabibdranth Tagore (literature) and the acclaimed poet Unil Gangipadhyay. Rural Bengal has a rich folk literature and narrative poetry tradition. Literary magazine in Calcutta sometimes are still produced with hand presses. Early magazines were printed on banana leaves.
Bengal has a centuries old literary tradition. Sometimes Bangladeshis approach travelers on the streets to read them poetry. But despite this, with its traditionally low literacy rate, Bangladesh has been an oral village country with a literary elite traditionally centered in Kolkata (Calcutta). The most important Bengali literary prize is awarded in Kolkata.
According to “Countries and Their Cultures”: “Most people, regardless of their degree of literacy, can recite more than one poem with dramatic inflection. Best known are the works of the two poet — heroes of the region: Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nurul Islam. The most famous contemporary writer is Taslima Nasreen, whose novellas and essays question the Islamic justification for the customary treatment of women. Conservative religious authorities have tried to have her arrested and have called for her death for blasphemy. She lives in exile.
Famous contemporary writers include Begum Sufi Kamal, Sukamar Barura, Shamsur Rahman and Syed Ali Ahsan. Mohsin Hamid was regarded as an up and coming writer in the 2000s. Monica Ali’s novel “Brick Lane” was a favorite to win Booker Prize in 2003. Judges called it “an extraordinary first novel and extremely funny.” Ali is a Bangladeshi-born British resident. The book is about a Bangladeshi girl who comes to Britain for an arranged marriage and adjusted to life in a East London apartment,
Kazi Nazrul Islam
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) was a Bengali poet, writer, musician and, is the national poet of Bangladesh. Famous for his fiery words and popularly known as Nazrul, he produced a large body of poetry and music with themes that included religious devotion and rebellion against oppression. His political activism and calls for social justice earned him the title of "Bidrohi Kobi" (Rebel Poet). His compositions form the avant-garde music genre of Nazrul Geeti (Music of Nazrul). [Source: Wikipedia]
Born into a Bengali Muslim Kazi family hailing from Burdwan district in Bengal Presidency (now in West Bengal), Nazrul Islam underwent religious education at a madrasah and worked as a muezzin at a local mosque as a young man. He learned about poetry, drama, and literature while working with the rural theatrical group Letor Dal. Leto is a folk song genre of West Bengal usually performed by the people from Muslim community of the region. He served in the British Indian Army from in 1917 to 1920 and was stationed in the Middle East during World War I. After the war Nazrul settled in Calcutta and established himself as a journalist and a rebel rouser. He criticised the British Raj and called for revolution in his poetic works such as "Bidrohi" (“The Rebel”) and "Bhangar Gaan" (“The Song of Destruction”) as well as in his publication Dhumketu (“The Comet”). He was imprisoned several times for his involvement in Indian independence activities by the British colonial authorities. While in prison, Nazrul wrote the "Rajbandir Jabanbandi" (“Deposition of a Political Prisoner”). His writings greatly inspired Bengalis of East Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Nazrul's writings explored themes such as freedom, humanity, love, and revolution. He opposed all forms of bigotry and spoke out against various forms of religious, caste-based and gender-based fundamentalism and oppression. Nazrul wrote short stories, novels, and essays but is best known for his songs and poems. He is known for his extensive use of Arabic and Persian words in his works and profoundly enriched ghazals, Shrikrishna kirtanas and Shyama sangeet in Bengali language. Some of his poems have been translated into Hindi and English.
One of the most famous photographs of Nazrul shows him with shoulder-length hair, playing a flute. Dressed in a cloak he looks like a holy man or an itinerant bard. Nazrul wrote and composed music for nearly 4,000 songs (many recorded on HMV and gramophone records), collectively known as Nazrul Geeti. In the 1940s when he was in his 40s, Nazrul began losing his voice and memory and was diagnosed as having Pick's disease, a rare incurable neurodegenerative disease. His mental and physical health decline steadily and he lived in psychiatric hospital in India for many years. At the invitation of the Bangladesh government, Nazrul's family took him to Dhaka in 1972.They were awarded Bangladesh citizenship and died there four years later in 1976.
Rabindranath Tagore and Bangladesh
Rabindranath Tagore is the famous Nobel Prize winning Bengali poet, who wrote both the Bangladesh national anthem, “Amar Sonar Bangla, Ami Tomai Bhalobashi” ("My Golden Bengal, I Love You") and the Indian National Anthem. Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 long before India, Pakistan and Bangladesh emerged as independent nations. Although from West Bengal and associated most with the Kolkata (Calcutta) area, he is revered as an influential Bengali who did much to preserve and elevate Bangla language and culture.
Ragib Hasan, who was born and brought up in Bangladesh and describes himself as a proud Bengali, wrote on Quora.com: If there is a song that everyone in Bangladesh knows, at least those who went to school, that would be the national anthem. Tagore's poems, writeups are also very popular, even 75 years after his death. And there is actually a fanatic following of Tagore's songs ... Rabindra Sangeet ... they are a staple of most Bangladeshi cultural events including the famous Bengali new years celebrations. Tagore spent a lot of time in his Jamindari in erstwhile East Bengal, current Bangladesh. It's often said that Tagore's finest songs were written while he was on his houseboat on the Padma River. Also, many of his songs were influenced by the Baul singers of East Bengal.
Ishtiaque Khan, who lives in Bangladesh, wrote on Quora.com: Almost every school going child gets to read a number of his poems during the first few years of their education. Also, "Robindro Shongeet", e.g. songs written and or composed by Robindronath Tagore are widely popular and gets a lot of air time on the TV and Radio stations. His writings are also famous, and throughout the year, there are events celebrating his life and his work.
See Separate Article INDIAN LITERATURE factsanddetails.com
Nirad Chaudhuri
Nirad Chaudhuri was 90 when his 979-page analysis of Indian intellectual life, “Thy Hand, Great Anarchy! India: 1921-1952", was published. Sometimes called the “enfant terrible” of Indian letters, he made a name for himself in 1951 with his first book, “The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian”, described by Winston Churchill as "one of the best books he ever read."
Educated in an East Bengal village and in Calcutta, Chauduri wrote a biography on the founder of the British raj, Robert Clive, but turned down a requests by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to write a biography on her second husband Aristotle Onassis. He was 100 when his book “Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse” was published.
Chaudhuri was born in Kishoregunj, Mymensingh, East Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh). He was the second of eight children of a lawyer. His parents were liberal middle-class Hindus who belonged to the Brahmo Samaj movement. He spent the last years of his life in the city of Oxford, England. In 1990, he was awarded an Honorary Degree in Letters Oxford University. In 1992, he was made an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). [Source: Wikipedia]
Writers and Bloggers Attacked by Islamists in Bangladesh
In the 2000s and 2010s, several writers, publishers and bloggers were harassed, attacked and even killed by Islamic extremists. In 2015 four bloggers and one publisher were hacked to death in Bangladesh — a relatively small number for a country with a population of around 165 million. In October 2015, militants carried out simultaneous attacks on two book publishers. They were not secular activists, but rather were businessmen who helped prink and market books by some of Bangladesh most distinguished writers. [Source: Ellen Barry, New York Times, November 3, 2015]
In 2004, Humayun Azad, a prominent writer and a teacher at Dhaka University, was seriously wounded in a machete attack after he attended a book fair. In 2013, Bangladeshi blogger, Rajib Haider, was killed by unknown attackers. He had helped organize protests that year demanding harsher punishment for perpetrators of crimes in Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence, and was also a fierce critic of the Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami. [Source: Julfikar Ali Manik and Nida Najar, New York Times, February 27, 2015]
Harkat-u-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji) was an Islamic group banne din Bangladesh in 2006 and linked with Fazlul Rahman, who signed Osama bin Laden’s 1998 declaration calling for international jihad Among Huji’s main targets was Shamtur Rahman, Bangladesh’s leading poet. One day members of the group broke into his house and went after the poet and his family with axes. The poet said a man with an ax “tried to cut my head off but my wife took me in her arms and my daughter-in-law too.” Neighbors heard the noise and chased off the attackers and no one was seriously hurt. After that lived with police protection. There were reports that Al-Qaida had given Huji $300,000 to carry out the attack.
Blogger Killed in a Machete Attack on the Streets of Dhaka
Avijit Roy, a 42-year-old Bangladeshi-American blogger known for atheist views and aversion to religion was hacked to death on the street in Dhaka by two machete-wielding attackers. Julfikar Ali Manik and Nida Najar wrote in the New York Times: “The victim was leaving a book fair with his wife in the evening when his attackers approached him from behind, according to the police. His wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonya, 45, suffered a blow to the head and was in critical condition in a Dhaka hospital, said Sirajul Islam, an officer at the Shahbag police station, where Mr. Roy’s father reported the assault. [Source: Julfikar Ali Manik and Nida Najar, New York Times, February 27, 2015]
“Jibon Ahmed, a photographer for a local photo agency, said by phone that he heard screams outside the fair around 9 p.m. After finding the couple, he said, he helped them into an auto-rickshaw and took them to the hospital, where Mr. Roy died. The police have not named any suspects, but Mr. Islam said that witnesses had provided descriptions of the attackers. Officers recovered two bloodied machetes from the scene of the crime.
“Mr. Roy was a prolific writer on secularism and condemned religious extremism, particularly through his blog, Mukto-Mona, the Bengali words for Free Mind. He also wrote on the website of the Center for Inquiry, an organization based in the United States dedicated to humanist thinking and critiques of religion. In a recent article, Mr. Roy described the release of his 2014 book, “Biswasher Virus,” or “The Virus of Faith.” “The death threats started flowing to my email inbox on a regular basis,” he wrote, describing reaction after the book came out. One extremist, he wrote, “issued death threats to me through his numerous Facebook statuses.” In one, the extremist wrote: “Avijit Roy lives in America and so it is not possible to kill him right now. But he will be murdered when he comes back.”
“Michael De Dora, the director of the Center for Inquiry’s office of public policy, reacted to news of Mr. Roy’s death in a statement on the center’s website. “Avijit was brilliant, yes, and a devoted advocate of free expression and secularism, but also just a very good person,” Mr. De Dora said. “Avijit was an inspiration to countless other freethinkers, in Bangladesh and around the world, and he was an inspiration to me.”
“Parvez Alam, a Bangladeshi blogger who has written for Mukto-Mona, described Mr. Roy as “one of the most talented writers of our country.” “This has been going on in Bangladesh,” he said. “The bloggers have different religious viewpoints and we’re being attacked again and again, and we’re not getting justice.” “Using religion in the attempt to resist freethinking will not be accepted,” Khushi Kabir, a rights campaigner, told The Dhaka Tribune.
Fear in Bangladesh Fostered by the Attacks on Writers and Bloggers
The attacks on writers and bloggers aroused fears among people in a broad range of sectors in the Bangladeshi cultural world. Reporting from Dhaka, Ellen Barry wrote in the New York Times: “Fear has wormed its way into the mind of Mithila Farzana, who hosts two talk shows on a Bangladeshi television news channel. These days, she is so alert to the sensation of men coming up behind her that when she walks the halls of the university in Dhaka where she teaches, she will step aside, heart racing, to let students pass. Her husband will no longer allow her to take a car service to work, reasoning that in a city that is home to well-resourced radical networks, “a driver can sell himself easily,” she says. He drives her himself. [Source: Ellen Barry, New York Times, November 3, 2015]
“In the past, Ms. Farzana could survey the danger from a professional distance, reporting the facts each time militants murdered one of the bloggers campaigning against fundamentalist Islam. Then, a shadowy group — the one that claimed responsibility for killing the bloggers — sent a letter to a television news channel warning that unless news media stopped employing unveiled women as journalists, “the outcome will be dreadful.” Ms. Farzana, 37, cannot shake the feeling that, as she puts it, “there is a blueprint,” and that someone, somewhere has added her name to a list. “I am really scared this time,” she said. “I have something in mind that maybe they would like to open up a new chapter and kill a woman. These days, you may not have a single idea how you are related to the whole thing. But maybe you are the target. You never know.”
Anonymous threats are common, and the cumulative psychological effect has been profound, prompting public figures to steer away from discussing the terrorist threat openly“Salil Tripathi, the chairman of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, approached a long list of Bangladeshi writers for a commentary after a blogger was killed in May. All refused, saying that attaching their name to the subject would be too dangerous. He was reduced to publishing a column written by an expatriate, under a pen name. By threatening intellectuals, “you’re trying to silence opinion, and shape opinion, and I think that’s happening,” said Mr. Tripathi, the author of “The Colonel Who Would Not Repent,” a book about Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan and its legacy.
“The sensitivity has become so great, he said, that Bangladeshi friends have sometimes asked him not to tag them in Facebook posts that discuss attacks on bloggers. With a handful of exceptions, “I can’t think of any Bangladeshi intellectual who is writing under his or her name on this issue,” he said. Over the last month, the range of threats, typically issued from anonymous accounts via social media, have broadened to include foreigners, female journalists and members of the country’s Shiite minority. A statement issued on Saturday titled “Who’s Next,” attributed to Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh division of Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, listed broad categories of targets, including “well-known writers,” poets, “so-called intellectuals,” newspaper and magazine editors, actors and journalists.
“Many writers and opinion makers have withdrawn from public life. Ahmad Mostofa Kamal, 45, a novelist whose name was included on a 2013 “hit list,” says he rarely leaves his office and regularly turns down invitations to speak in public. “My life is totally isolated,” he said. “A writer always feels the need to move everywhere. They have to talk. They have to go to public places. They have to talk to readers.” Mr. Kamal has never reported threats to the police, he said, because he thinks they will tell him to leave the country. He has ruled out that possibility, but after the weekend’s attacks, the level of anxiety among his friends and family has shot up. “Last night, my son was talking with me, and he was saying, ‘Father, will they kill you also?’ ” he said. “This is my son. A teenager. He is asking me whether I will be killed. What can be my answer?”
“Similar tremors were running through Ekattor TV, a cable news channel whose editor in chief, Mozammel Babu, made it a policy to hire women as reporters and anchors because, as he puts it, “women bashing strong men, I like this.” Mr. Babu’s reporters are more and more cautious. One of his best-known faces, Nobonita Chowdhury, discovered in June that her name was included on a hit list of 25 celebrities known for their secular views. She is now on a hiatus from television, for health reasons and for the sake of her family. “My brother freaked out,” she said. “He said: ‘Stop doing this. Stay home for me.’ ”
“Another of the station’s reporters, Farzana Rupa, 38, said she had decided against covering the publisher attacks over the weekend. After credible threats appeared on her Facebook page, she stopped driving her own car. But the drivers she hired kept quitting — six of them in a row — saying they believed that working with her was too risky. Recently, Ms. Rupa has begun talking frankly about the danger to her daughter, who is 8, and other children in her household. “I tell them, ‘Nowadays, anything can happen to Mom, so you should learn to be independent,’ ” she said.
Taslima Nasarin, Female Salmon Rushdie of Bangladesh
In 1994, Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasarin, fled to Sweden after receiving Salmon-Rushdie-like death threats and having $10,000 price placed on her head. Nasrin is a former physician and has been quite outspoken and public about her feminist and anti-religious views. Married three times and an avowed atheist, she suggested that women should be able to chose their sexual partners, have children outside of marriage, and take four husbands if they like. The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 1994.
Nasrin's troubles began after she won the important Bengali Literary prize in 1991 in Calcutta and her works were attacked in conservative Dhaka. Nasrin writes novels, poems and newspaper columns brutally condemning men advocating more sexual freedom for women. Her poems were often very sexually explicit even by Western standards. She once said, "Other women write love stories, I wrote about sexual oppression...I have no shyness describing anything about a woman's body or a man's body because I am a doctor."
In addition to espousing sexual freedom, Nasrin has criticized Muslim clerics for using the pretension of piety to achieve political goals. Nasrin's Bengali-language novel “Laija” (“Shame”) — about the troubles of a Hindu family in Bangladesh and riots between Muslims and Hindus — was banned by the Bangladeshi government in 1993. The book was condemned by Islamic extremist as being too sympathetic to India. Nasreen fled Bangladesh in 1994 when a court said she had “deliberately and maliciously” hurt Muslims’ religious feelings with her book“Lajja”. At the time, thousands of radical Muslims demonstrated against her, demanding that she be put death for blasphemy, threat that have continued to dog her her whole life.
Taslima Nasarin and Attacks by Islamists
Nasrin (also spelled Nasreen) was quoted in an Indian newspaper as demanding that the Quran be revised, a blasphemous statement punishable by death under some strict Islamic law interpretations. Nasrin claims that she was misquoted. She said she said that Islamic law not the Quran should be revised. In any case, an imam at one of Dhaka's leading Muslim seminaries said, "She should be executed." Crowds gathered in the streets of the capital shouting, "Death, death and only death for apostate Nasrin." In 1993, a mullah offered a reward of $1,500 for her assassination. Similar offers followed.
The accusations against Nasrin, whipped up Muslim extremist passions. Radical Muslim mobs burned down schools run by foreigners, mullahs called for the expulsion of foreign aid groups, politicians called for the implantation of Islamic law and two newspaper editors were imprisoned for blasphemy. Nasrin said, "I am not afraid of the fundamentalists, no. They try to kill me but I will never stop writing. They will kill my family but they will never stop my writing."
Nasrin was not well liked in the Bangladeshi intellectual community. Few writers, scholars or even feminists came to her defense. They said that she had brought her problems on herself by emulating Salman Rushdie. Feminists said she put more emphasis on sex than on women's social issues. The Bangladeshi government did not give her much support either. Nasrin said that she was a lighting rod for resentment by Islamic extremist over the rising power of village women. Human rights groups in the West were the main ones that took up her cause.
Nasrin returned to Bangladesh in September 1998 to care for her ailing mother. Both the police and Islamic groups were on her tail when they found out she was in the country. Two months later she ordered to surrender to police on charges of blasphemy. She again fled Bangladesh and made her home in Kolkata.
In 2004, a Muslim cleric offered a $440 reward to anyone who was able to successfully humiliate Nasreen by blackening her face with shoe polish or ink or by garlanding her with shoes. In 2007, lawmakers and members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party attacked her at the press club in Hyderabad, India at the launch of a Telugu translation of one of her novels. Reuters reported: “An uneasy-looking Nasreen backed into a corner as several middle-aged men threw a leather case, bunches of flowers and other objects at her head and threatened her with a chair. Some of the mob shouted for her death.” Her forhead was bruised in the attack.
Taslima Nasrin’s Life
In a speech published in Reader’s Digest, Taslima Nasarin said: “I was born in Mymensingh in Bangladesh, to a Muslim family. It was a very conservative society. I was lucky because my father decided to send me to school. He wanted me to go to school and then college and he wanted me to become a doctor. In school I saw so many girls, so many classmates of mine, who were made to quit their studies because they were forced to marry when they were 13 or 14. They wanted to continue with their education but couldn’t because their parents decided that they should marry instead. [Source: Taslima Nasrin, Reader’s Digest, October 12, 2018]
“At that time, married girls were not allowed to study. Many of my classmates wanted to be doctors or engineers but couldn't … My father wanted me to become a doctor so I studied to become one. When I was a child, I saw the role of women in my family. My grandmother was just like a slave; she was treated like a child-bearing machine, nothing else. Even though my father was a doctor, an educated person, my mother was oppressed by my father. My mother was [a] very good student but she had to quit school because my grandparents didn’t want her to study post marriage. And I didn’t want a life like my grandmother or my mother, so it was good that I got a chance to study. My father was a secular man but my mother was religious. She asked me to read the Quran and pray. But I always wanted to know the meaning of the verses that I read. When I asked my mother, she said, “You don’t need to know the meaning of the verses in the Quran, you just need to read the Quran in Arabic and Allah will be happy.”
“I was a curious child; I wanted to know what I was reading. One day, when I was 12, I got a Bengali translation of the Quran and read it, and found instances of inequalities and injustices against women. So I stopped believing in religion. When I studied other religions, I found that they too are also very much against women. Women are oppressed through religion, culture, customs and tradition. I didn’t know why we did not protest against these misogynistic cultures. I started writing about this when I was young, just a teenager. I had seen my eldest brother write poems so I wanted to try it out too. When I was 17, I started publishing and editing literary magazines.
Taslima Nasrin on Writing
In the speech published in Reader’s Digest, Taslima Nasarin said: “It was not easy for a girl to publish magazines or get published in the ’70s. From 1978, I started editing a poetry magazine, which received contributions from Bangladeshi poets as also from poets in West Bengal. I was writing poetry and stories in a country where most people think it is okay for men to write. But not women. [Source: Taslima Nasrin, Reader’s Digest, October 12, 2018]
“For a woman to start writing would mean she had some problems. That such women were unhappy. And that unhappy women either committed suicide or became prostitutes — or, worse, they started writing. I started writing in that kind of environment. I mostly wrote about women. The women I had seen in the street, the women I met, the suffering of women I heard about.
“When I was writing about women’s rights, I had not read any books on feminism. I just saw what was happening in our society and wrote about that, encouraging women to fight for their right. And many women told me that my writings inspired them, gave them strength.
“I told myself I must not stop my writing. I must continue because it touched lives. I was encouraged by women to keep writing even though misogynists hated me. Religious fundamentalists too, because I criticized religious oppression against women; many Islamic fanatics were angry with me.
Taslima Nasrin on Wearing a Burka and a Lack of Women’s Rights in Bangladesh
In the speech published in Reader’s Digest, Taslima Nasarin said: “I always aspired for greater freedom. I didn’t have enough of it. My father, even though he wanted me to study, did not allow me to go outside: to go to the cinema, to the theatre, to a concert, or even to a friend’s house. My brother had that right to do whatever he wanted to do but I didn’t. My sister didn’t either. Throughout my childhood I have seen how girls and women are oppressed. [Source: Taslima Nasrin, Reader’s Digest, October 12, 2018]
“My mother wanted me to wear a burka. She wore the burka and I didn't like it. In the ’70s not many young women wore burkas, but now that the country has been Islamized, many women can be seen wearing hijabs and burkas. It is very sad: Why are women required to wear hijabs and burkas? Because men can have sexual urges if they see them. So women have to cover up. It is very strange too: Women also have sexual urges. I don’t think anybody wants to admit that. Going by this logic, women might also experience sexual urges if they see men but, hypocritically, men do not have to hide their body.
“When I studied medicine, nobody wore a hijab or burka. Now almost every woman wears it. When I look at the country that so changed in the last 20 years, it alarms me. When I started writing, I chose to write about women’s rights, the oppression against women, on our fight for equal rights and freedom.
“We have to fight misogyny and men also have to participate in this movement. It is not the women’s duty alone to get equality for women, it is the men’s duty too. Because it is our society, and both men and women need to make it better. Women have proved that they can do what men can do. Women are in the military; women are part of the police; women are doctors, engineers. Men haven’t proved they can do what women can. Child care is still thought of as a woman’s duty. No! It’s a man’s duty too. They should also try to do everything that women traditionally did. I don’t want to discard men from the women’s movement. Men are in a powerful position. Men can help to make their society better. With gender equality, men don’t have to live with their slaves — they can live with their equal partners.
Taslima Nasrin on Freedom of Expression and the Oppression of Religion
Nasrin said: “In 1993, they issued a fatwa against me. They put a price on my head; and instead of supporting me, the Bangladeshi government took action against me. The government filed a case against me on the grounds of hurting religious sentiments. I had to go into hiding, and, ultimately, I was forced out of my country. Twenty-four years ago my life in exile started. Because I talked about women who are oppressed because of religion, culture, customs and traditions. Had I talked against the culture of misogyny, it might have been okay, but the problem starts when I talk against religion, especially Islam.
“When I criticize Hinduism, or Christianity, Judaism, or Buddhism, they don’t issue decrees against me, but when I’m critical of Islam, then the fundamentalists start issuing fatwas. Hundreds and thousands of fanatics took to the street demanding my execution by hanging. And what I found astounded me: Islam had been exempted from critical scrutiny that applied to other religions.
“Freedom of expression is very important for democracy and without the freedom of offending, freedom of expression can not exist. I believe in this. I am against all kinds of fundamentalism. To get equality, we need to fight fundamentalism. We need to fight against the misogynistic cultures that are currently plaguing our society. And I will continue with my writings, and I will continue my fight until death, wherever I stay.
“I would love to be in India; I feel at home here. Perhaps people think I shouldn’t have the right to offend others. I do not intentionally want to offend anybody but I like to express my feelings, which are often inconsonant with others, and so it would offend them. If you want change, there will be some who would get offended. If you want to create a society where no women is oppressed, if you want to create an equal society, you have to hurt the misogynists.
“Their getting offended shouldn’t stop your progressive thoughts and limit your expression of ideas. Throughout history we have seen a handful of people change society. Not millions but a few who bring in change. I only hope that the governments support us: those of us who need their freedom to express their views against systemic oppression. Clearly, the religious have the freedom to express their views but not the non-religious.
“Whenever non-religious people express their views, the government and fanatics go after them and try to drown out their voice. But in a democracy everyone should enjoy the same rights equally. I do not think that if you believe in religion then you can also believe in women’s rights because religion, as it is, is not compatible with women’s rights, human rights and freedom of expression. In our subcontinent we see fanaticism on the rise. I hope that one day good sense will prevail and lead to the creation of a better society.
“We don’t need religious laws. We have Islamic laws that date back to the seventh century. Recently triple talaq was abolished and everyone thought that Muslim women finally have freedom. No. They don’t. All religious laws should be abolished. Women are still oppressed because of them: marriage, child custody and inheritance laws. There is no equality. I hope that, one day, Bangladesh will get a uniform civil code, based on equality. I don’t think all women will become free and have access to their rights if we have uniform civil codes. But it will be a start.
Taslima Nasrin Poem: “You Go Girl
The name of my poem is ‘You Go Girl’.
They said — take it easy …
Said — calm down …
Said — stop talkin’ …
Said — shut up …
They said — sit down …
Said — bow your head …
Said — keep on cryin’, let the tears roll …
“What should you do in response?
“You should stand up now
Should stand right up
Hold your back straight
Hold your head high …
You should speak
Speak your mind
Speak it loudly
Scream!
“You should scream so loud that they must run for cover.
They will say — ‘You are shameless!’
When you hear that, just laugh …
“They will say — ‘You have a loose character!’
When you hear that, just laugh louder …
They will say — ‘You are rotten!’
So just laugh, laugh even louder …
Hearing you laugh, they will shout,‘You are a whore!’
“When they say that,
Just put your hands on your hips,
Stand firm and say,
‘Yes, yes, I am a whore!’
“They will be shocked.
They will stare in disbelief.
They will wait for you to say more, much more …
The men amongst them will turn red and sweat.
The women amongst them will dream to be a whore like you.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Bangladesh Tourism Board, Bangladesh National Portal (www.bangladesh.gov.bd), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022