Taslima Nasrin in Europe.

After leaving Bangladesh following the death sentence issued against her by Muslim leaders for her criticisms of Islamic law, novelist Taslima Nasrin continues to speak out. Her travels have taken her to Prague and Paris. In Strasbourg, France, she received the Sakharov Prize. This past December, she networked with humanist, anti-fundamentalist, human rights, and women's organizations in the United Kingdom.

Appearing at "Blood and Letters," a conference in London organized by the women's theater company, The Spinx, in conjunction with the National Theatre's education department, she shared the platform with dissident Ukrainian poet Irina Ratushinskaya and Amrit Wilson, a writer and activist on black women's and anti racist issues. According to Vera Lustig, Nasrin, who is a gynecologist, "spoke of women weeping after they had given birth to girls; of women with ruptured wombs from bearing child after child in an attempt to produce a son to please their husbands; of women beaten, murdered even, for set tiny up their own cooperatives; of malnutrition because `the men get all the best food.'"

At a meeting organized by the Norwegian Humanist and Ethical Association in Oslo, Norway, Nasrin said (as reported by Barbro Sveen):

Both my parents are religious,

and I respect them and their

attitude to life. People who live

according to their religious belief

should be respected. But I have

also seen the other side of

religion--the one that results in

violence, rapes, persecution, and

death. I have seen groups of

people professing the same

religion fight each other bitterly. I

have also witnessed how millions

of Hindus have been obliged to

leave their country just because

they are Hindus and not

Muslims. I asked myself: is this

religion?

Later I discovered other

things. Not a single religion

affords equality to women. They

are always treated as number two

and often even as slaves. It is

woman's duty to please a

man--never the other way 'round.

Is this equality?

I am a rationalist. I am a

doctor and I do not believe that it

is possible to get well from an

illness by praying to God for

recovery. I do know now that

there are fundamentalists within

every religion, not only within

Islam. Just think of those

Christians in Europe who are out

for the blood of Muslims, or

other Christians who are against

family planning.

Historically, we find that

every religion is subject to

changes. In earlier times,

Christian women called witches

were burnt at the stake. This is

not done nowadays. Hindus

used to burn the widow--alive--on

the same pyre as her dead

husband.

Every single religion tends to

suppress women. That is why

religion and women do not get on

very well together. Therefore--if

we are of the opinion that women

have a right to be human

beings--we have to separate

religion from the state. It is only

in a secular society that women

can rely on being free.

In the English translation of her novel Lajia (Shame), Nasrin has added a preface containing the following:

The disease of religious

fundamentalism is not restricted

to Bangladesh alone and it must

be fought at every turn. For

myself, I am not afraid of any

challenge or threat to my life. I

will continue to write and protest

against persecution and

discrimination. I am convinced

that the only way the

fundamentalist forces can be

stopped is if all of us who are

secular and humanistic join

together and fight their malignant

influences. I, for one, will not be

silenced.