cris wrote:
>If anybody here, reading hits, does know more, then please put what you can
>up on the list.

from http://foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/international/1019/i_ap_1019_3.sml

Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin craves freedom at home
 1.18 a.m. ET (518 GMT) October 19, 1998

 By Farid Hossain, Associated Press


 DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) ‹ The small woman rose trembling from a prayer mat and
 tearfully gazed at a steel-framed photo of her daughter, the besieged author Taslima
 Nasrin.

 "I've prayed for her long life. Let Allah take care of my daughter,'' Eid-ul-Ara Begum
 murmured.

 Not far from her apartment in downtown Dhaka's Shantinagar ‹ which, ironically, means
 "peaceful neighborhood'' ‹ dozens of Islamic extremists were in the street demanding
 death for her daughter.

 "Hang the infidel!'' the protesters shouted, even though the blasphemy charges Nasrin faces
 for allegedly insulting the Koran carry a penalty of only two years in jail.

 Nasrin, a poet, essayist and novelist, fled her homeland four years ago because of similar
 protests that erupted after a newspaper quoted her as saying Islam's holy book should be
 rewritten.

 She said she was misquoted, but she stood her ground in arguing that many women are
 abused in this predominantly Muslim country and should have more rights.

 Ending her self-exile in September, Nasrin came home to be with her 60-year-old mother,
 who has colon cancer. She has had to remain in hiding ever since.

 "I want my freedom back,'' Nasrin told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from
 her hideout. "This is my country and I've every right to freely live here.''

 She said she had had enough of living far from the Bangladeshi readers she considers her
 main audience and the Bangladeshi subjects closest to her heart. But she was not sure how
 long she would be able to stay.

 The extremist Muslims demanding her death are a tiny minority, but they are promising to
 stage bigger and bigger protests to embarrass the government and keep police busy.

 Authorities fear a repeat of 1994, when thousands of demonstrators disrupted the streets of
 Dhaka until then-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia ordered Nasrin's arrest. The writer first went
 into hiding, then surrendered to the High Court, which granted her bail and permission to
 leave the country.

 Now that she is back, Zia's successor, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has shown little
 interest in pursuing the blasphemy case.

 Nasrin, a physician-turned-author, has angered some Muslims with blunt writing on the
 problems of women in Bangladesh. She relates in graphic detail about the rape and
 harassment of women, and about men who force their wives to have sex against their will.

 "To men, our women are nothing but a dress,'' Nasrin concludes in one of her newspaper
 articles. "They discard the women like they do with an old dress.''

 In her book "Nirbachito Column,'' a compilation of newspaper essays that first made her
 famous in Bangladesh, she tells of an 18-year-old woman who was beaten by her husband,
 a devout Muslim, for refusing to have sex one night when she was sick.

 Nasrin writes she was shocked when the man said it was a Muslim woman's religious
 obligation to have sex with her husband no matter when and how many times.

 Such themes earned her a large number of admirers, especially among young women.

 "She does have important things to say for our women, who are abused every day,
 everywhere,'' said Nazneen Afroz, a high school student. "She has given a voice to the
 voiceless.''

 Others say Bangladesh may not be ready for Nasrin.

 "She raises too many issues too early,'' said Ayesha Khanam, a leader of Bangladesh Mahila
 Parishad, the country's largest women's rights group. "Attacking Islam does not serve our
 purpose.''

 Nonetheless, liberals in Bangladesh have denounced the anti-Nasrin campaign and are
 urging the government, led by a progressive-minded Muslim woman, to protect her.

 The attacks on Nasrin come from nearly two dozen groups that want women to stay at
 home most of the time and wear veils when they do venture out.

 Bangladesh is governed by a secular constitution promising equal rights to women and
 men. But the government tries to balance its ideals with the emotions of its citizens.

 A 1993 Bangladeshi ban on Nasrin's novel, "Lajja'' ("Shame''), remains in place.

 The novel criticized Muslims for attacking minority Hindus in retaliation for the destruction
 of a mosque by Hindu zealots in neighboring India in 1992. The government said the book
 might incite Hindu-Muslim tensions.


*****************************************************************
Trevor Joyce
Apple Cork IS&T
Phone : +353-21-284405
EMail : [log in to unmask]
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