Taslima Nasrin
See Dilip D’Souza’s post on the latest attack on Taslima Nasrin. As usual “religious sentiments have been hurt” is being handed out as so much stale mithai, and as Dilip points out, it has an eery resemblance to recent events in Baroda. This shameful episode is rightly being condemned widely, however, with certain qualifiers:
“The government should immediately cancel her visa and make her go out of the country,” he said adding, “she should realise that this is not Bangladesh or Pakistan, but India where the sentiments of all communities are respected”.(Delhi Minorities Commission Chairperson Kamal Farooqui)
And further:
No doubt Taslima Nasrin’s penchant to flirt with the religious sentiment of the Islamic community and her outright defense of right to indulge in sex outside marriage is not less outrageous as such ideas in print form only contribute to pollute the purity of the general mind to a larger extent.
Taslima Nasrin makes everybody uncomfortable. There are those who are complaining that “secularists have double standards because they are not doing dharnas.” Which, as Amardeep points out doesn’t seem to be completely true. And others who are annoyed with her because it makes Muslims look bad in the eyes of the West (look what you are making the crazy mullahs do, stop writing this sh!t already) because:
If Taslima is all about this major literary voice being stilled, why is it that very little analysis is being done of her writings? Why is she always in the news for a perspective other than one of literary or ethical significance? Even when she wrote an autobiographical account in which several writers and political figures were mentioned, not for their role in damaging society but for sleeping with her, she was harping on freedom of speech.
A former professor, Shohini Ghosh, has an article, Censorship Myths and Imagined Harms (its a pdf download) in the Sarai Reader. The article was written in response to the West Bengal Government’s ban on Nasrin’s autobiography in 2003, and is about the “critical overlap between hate speech and sexual speech.” She points out how Taslima’s writing are neither “traditionally feminine nor desirable by Bengali canonical standards.” And how, “too much sexual agency deserves to be punished.” It points out how sexual stigma is used in hate campaigns. It leaves one with a chilling sense of the implications of these various forms of moral policing that are being advocated.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
The attack on Taslima was carried out by MIM legislators. This has to
do with the local politics of Hyderabad city as the city gears up for
the municipal elections. The MIM, was the largest single party in the
100 member Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad whose term is over. With
the creation of Greater Hyderabad by amalgamating all the 11 or 13
satellite municipalities, MIM will no longer be able to control the
affairs of the larger house of the MCH. But more importantly, a
significant schism has developed in the Muslim community in the Old
City in last couple of years. Two powerful urdu newspapers backed by
powerful Muslim entrepreneuers in the Congress and Telugu Desam have
been trying to break MIM’s hold on the Old City. In that context, MIM
launched its own newspaper, literally stole several journalists from
the other newspapers and flooded the urdu print media market.
In the run up to the elections, some of MIM’s rivals have sided with
the CPIM and started literally buying up the local power centers such
as the pehelwans (who play a significant role in the old city’s
communal politics as well as in the huge industry of landgrabbing) to
support the CPIM.
Given the fact that the CPIM actually does not have a strong presence
in Hyderabad city, and has only begun some serious effort to build an
organizational base among the city’s poor in the last few years –
there is also a view in circulation among some secularists that all
this may loosen up MIM’s hold, but instead of making room for
progressive groups may end up helping the BJP to make inroads because
the pehelwans in its fold may not easily switch sides. (I have no way
of judging that prospect from a distance).
MIM’s strategy of winning elections has always been to play on the
fears of the Muslims. They have been so successful at this game over
the decades that even the muslim voters who are highly critical of
MIM leaders, end up instinctively voting for MIM once they are in the
polling booth.
The attack on Taslima Nasreen took place in the Press Club of
Hyderabad — which is not part of the Old City. It is in the heart of
the main city, within walking distance of the state assembly and very
close to several properties which are controlled by
MIM’s rivals. This, as far as I know is the first time, the MIM has
done anything like it.