In defense of Taslima Nasrin.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union now represents 97 organizations worldwide having a collective membership of nearly four million individuals. As a result, the IHEU is making its positions felt in the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and elsewhere. An example of a small success last year can be seen in the Non-Governmental Organization meeting of the Council of Europe, which unanimously approved an IHEU-originated resolution requesting the representative bodies of that council:

a. to congratulate the government authorities of the United Kingdom on their courageous unilateral action to protect the life of the writer Salman Rushdie and hence in protection of the rights of the individual under Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention {on Human Rights};

b. to take all relevant steps to ensure that a citizen of a member State of the Council of Europe, under the protection of the Convention and enjoying the rights granted to him by that Convention, is not persecuted for his opinions or threatened with death when he expresses them.

If this sounds like old news reported late, it's rendered painfully current by the fact that the IHEU, at its recent board meeting in Toronto this summer, found it necessary to launch an organized international campaign with the following new statement on behalf of another declared humanist:

Taslima Nasrin and Freedom of Speech in Bangladesh

The International Humanist and Ethical Union expresses its grave concern about the treatment of writers and editors in Bangladesh. The harassment and persecution of the humanist author Taslima Nasrin and of newspaper editors who have supported her cause, is an attempt to suppress the right to question and criticize religious belief and practice. These persecutions violate fundamental human rights, including the rights of freedom of belief and expression.

The world humanist community is deeply concerned about the safety of Taslima Nasrin in the face of the demands by fundamentalists for her arrest and public hanging. We urge the Bangladesh government not to sacrifice basic human rights to appease fanatic and fundamentalist forces. We call upon the Bangladesh government to withdraw the arrest warrant issued against Taslima Nasrin, to provide her with protection against possible attack, and to prosecute those individuals and groups that have called for her murder.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union also urges that the ban on Taslima Nasrin's novel Lajja (Shame) be withdrawn and that the freedom of the author to speak on the basis of her conscience be upheld. Tolerance of minority opinions, and the freedom to express these views, are fundamental democratic principles. The IHEU calls upon the Bangladesh government to defend the democratic principles of Bangladesh and to uphold the basic freedom of Taslima Nasrin and others who question the authority of religion.

In case you haven't heard the details (the U.S. government and the American media have devoted little attention to her case), Taslima Nasrin's "crimes" are as follows: she wrote a novel, Lajja, that addresses the intolerance and violence of Bangladeshi Muslim fundamentalists toward Hindus and other religious minorities. In a 90 percent Muslim country, she publicly proclaimed herself a humanist. She was quoted in an Indian newspaper as saying that the Koran should be rewritten to end the oppression of women. (What she really said was that the Koran should be ignored.) And on Australian television this past June, Nasrin declared that Islam treats women as slaves, adding, "If women want to live like human beings, they will have to live outside the religion and Islamic law."

In response to this (and essentially proving her point), thousands of Muslim fundamentalists rioted throughout July in the streets of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Smashing car windshields and headlights, they marched on the parliament, where it took nearly 1,500 police in riot gear to contain them.

Earlier, fundamentalist Islamic clergy had put a price on Nasrin's head. To placate the fundamentalists, a Bangladesh court ordered her arrest under Article 295A of the penal code, which outlaws "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings ... by insulting religion or religious beliefs." As a result of all this, Taslima Nasrin has been in hiding since June 4, 1994.

We cannot conclude from this, however, that human rights are under assault only in the Muslim world. They are under attack in the West as well. And because the IHEU is aware that this applies even to humanist organizations, the following resolution was passed at the Toronto meeting to clarify and sharpen related resolutions from 1982, 1988, and 1992: Statement on Homosexuality and Bisexuality

The International Humanist and Ethical Union affirms:

1. that one of its main aims is to secure justice and fairness in society and to eliminate discrimination and intolerance.

2. that this extends to all people regardless of their beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, or race.

3. that homosexuality and bisexuality are the natural orientation of a human minority which has existed throughout history.

4. that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals make as valuable a contribution to society as their heterosexual counterparts. They are a cross-section of humanity, differing in no perceptible ways from their fellow human beings, other than in their sexual orientation.

5. that the fear and hatred of lesbians and gays, known as homophobia, is totally irrational. It is a social evil akin to racism and, as the Nazi experience has shown, can have the same evil consequences. It harms both the victimized individuals and the society which tolerates it.

The cleaner our own house, the more credible will the humanist voice become to others. And this involves far more than the securing of wider approval of IHEU proclamations. It also provides opportunities for humanist leaders to become active in the work of the world.

For example, James Dilloway, the IHEU representative at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, has been a long-time member of working groups there actively involved in the development of the Third World. For him, planning and action are the most meaningful realizations of philosophical ideals.

In this context, Dilloway writes that it is better for humanists to be "concerned positively with the entirety of existence, and not just with dogmademolishing." He adds, "The mass credulity of religious and factional conflict, now spreading everywhere, is easily induced by economic factors--today by trade in arms and by spreading poverty." The implication is clear: instead of destructive religious dogma being the root of the world's problems, it may be better seen as a consequence or an accompaniment. Thus, rather than acting on a motto of "less religion, less suffering," humanists might well declare, "less suffering, less religion."

Speaking in Geneva to the issue of economic and social rights (and subsequently finding himself unable to meet the sudden demand for his related press release), Dilloway exercised a positive effect on decisions affecting global development policies--in particular, the decision that debt payments of developing nations shouldn't take precedence over basic rights of citizens to food, shelter, clothing, employment, health services, or a healthy environment.

Furthermore, as a member of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting Health of Women and Children, Dilloway arranged for the IHEU's 1993 resolution on the "Genital Mutilation of Females" to be published in the committee's newsletter, causing it to be circulated widely throughout Africa and elsewhere. At the committee session, it was decided to draw up a final action plan to eliminate such practices, as well as to draft guidelines for a future convention to eradicate child pornography, the sale of children, and child prostitution.

But all is not so well for humanism in certain other UN quarters. Jean-Claude Pecker is the IHEU representative in Paris at UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, founded by 1962 Humanist of the year Julian Huxley). He reports that, in his venue, the humanist position is very weak, being easily overwhelmed by "a dozen or more of Catholic NGOs, not to speak of the national (!) delegation of the Vatican, and half a dozen of Islamic organizations" all promoting agendas generally opposed to humanist ideals. These include strong lobbies against abortion and the use of RU-486. Religiously controlled sex education is also vigorously supported by many UNESCO NGOs, as well as "the non-universality of human rights"--the idea that the specific cultural practices of various societies should take precedence over human rights, particularly the rights of women.

So unhumanistic is the atmosphere that, when Pecker spoke of the danger of overpopulation, his only support came from the Swiss delegate. Humanism might attain more influence in UNESCO, Pecker says, if other humanist and allied organizations would send NGO delegates to the Paris meetings.

In addition to working through other institutions, the IHEU takes direct action on its own. It is presently helping to fund an Averroes conference in Cairo, Egypt, this coming December, where humanist representatives from the Muslim world will congregate. The IHEU is also providing aid for a Spanish-language humanist magazine in Mexico, which will be used to disseminate humanist ideas throughout Latin America. In Brazil, a country originally founded on the positivist principles of Auguste Comte, a humanist-positivist magazine in Portuguese will be supported by the IHEU. And humanist contacts and groups in various African countries, as well as in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, will also receive assistance.

Unfortunately, however, the IHEU is unable to fund everything it values. In Poland, for example, the journal Bez Dogmatu (Without Dogma)--which speaks out against de facto media censorship, the clericalization of public life, religious indoctrination in public schools, and infringements of democracy (such as the government's recent dismissal of a petition for a referendum on abortion rights that was signed by 1.5 million Poles)--has financial problems so great that, without more donor support, it may have to cease publication.

In Russia, Elena Bonner, the widow of Andrei Sakaharov, has brought together a cadre of humanists, all of whom are Yeltsin supporters (no leftover party hacks from the now-defunct Institute for Scientific Atheism). They are eager to commence publication of a magazine, the Humanist Alternative. The only missing ingredient: a pledge donation of $5,000 per year. There are many such proposals and the IHEU is eager to bring people together who can bring them to fruition.

Overall, the trend is positive. The IHEU has changed from being an organization active in the world only indirectly through the work of its member organizations to an institution functioning in its own right. And in so changing, it has become less a prophet crying in the wilderness and more a prophet crying in the streets. In time, it may even cry in the marketplace--perhaps to the point of actually upsetting the tables of a few money-changers.