| BOOKS: INREVIEW
Speaking Out Under Threat
By
Shailaja Neelakantan/HONG KONG
Issue cover-dated June 13, 2002
My Girlhood: An Autobiography,
by Taslima Nasrin. Kali for Women. 250 rupees ($5.10)
Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin fled her country in 1994
after a newspaper quoted her as saying the Koran should be revised
to give women more rights. She said she was misquoted, but religious
extremists in Bangladesh--already incensed by her sympathetic
portrayal of Hindus in her novel Lajja (Shame) and by her outspokenness
about women's rights--imposed a fatwa, or religious order, against
her and put a $5,000 price on her head.
Nasrin fled to Sweden, where she stayed until 1998 when she
made a courageous return to Bangladesh to be with her mother
who had cancer. The death threats and the reward were renewed,
but Nasrin remained in hiding. After her mother died in January,
1999, she fled again to Sweden amid increasingly strident calls
for her head.
Seven months after her second flight, the Bangladesh government,
which outlaws fatwas, banned her book Amar Meye Bela (My Girlhood),
published in Bengali in Calcutta. "The import, sale, distribution
and preservation of all copies of Taslima Nasrin's Amar Meye
Bela have been banned because its contents may create adverse
reactions and hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims,"
a government statement said.
Now the maverick Indian publishing house, Kali For Women, has
published a superb English translation of the book. The book
illustrates, subtly and effectively, how Nasrin grew up to become
a passionate supporter of free speech and unfettered thought--ideas
abhorred by Bangladesh's fundamentalist elements.
Translated by Gopa Majumdar, My Girlhood is an almost tender
and wry description not just of Nasrin's childhood but also
her country's ravaged history. More in the vein of an autobiographical
novel, it begins with the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, when
East Pakistan broke away after a bloody civil war. Nasrin and
her family had to flee amid a mass exodus from cities to villages
when the war started to take its toll.
At the age of about 10, Nasrin became aware that boys and girls
were treated differently; that boys had considerably more freedom.
"Girls stay at home in villages. They don't go out,"
she was warned.
The family's story is told layer by layer. The endless political
intrigue that is the backdrop to the saga is effortlessly woven
in. Nasrin's memories are vivid and while she is the protagonist,
her presence is never intrusive. Her eye takes in events and
characters that don't necessarily have an immediate connection
to her, adding rich detail to the book.
My Girlhood is a mature, compassionate reflection of Nasrin's
life before adulthood. The story of her adult life is awaited
keenly.
Shailaja Neelakantan is a writer based in Hong Kong
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