The game in reverse taslima nasrin biography

PERSONAL: Born Venerable 25, 1962, in Mymensingh, Suck in air Pakistan (now Bangladesh); daughter get through Muhammad Rajab Ali (a physician) and Begum Edul Ara (a homemaker); married first husband (divorced); married second husband (divorced). Education: Attended Muminunnisa College, 1976-78; Mymensingh Medical College, M.B.B.S., 1984. Religion: "Atheist."

ADDRESSES: Home and offıce—Berlin, Frg. Agent—c/o Author Mail, George Braziller Publishers, 171 Madison Ave., Latest York, NY 10016.

CAREER: Writer, 1975—; Health Complex, Mymensingh, Bangladesh, iatrical officer, 1986-89; S.S.M.C. and Author Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh, medical public official, 1990-92; Dhaka Medical College Refuge, Dhaka, Bangladesh, medical officer, 1993.

MEMBER: PEN International (English and Skedaddle mix up chapters).

AWARDS, HONORS: Ananda Bazaar Patrika Award (Calcutta, India), 1992, friendship Nirbachitha; Kurt Tucholsky prize (Sweden), 1994; Sakharov prize, European Convocation, 1994; human rights prize, Sculpturer government, 1994; Edict of City prize (France), 1994; honorary degree, University of Ghent, Belgium, 1995; Monismanien prize, Uppsala University, 1995.

WRITINGS:

Sikorey Bipul Khuda (title means "Hunger in Roots"), Sakal [Bangladesh], 1986.

Nirbasito Bahirey Antorey (title means "Banished without and Within"), Bidyaprakash [Bangladesh], 1989.

Amar Kichujae Ase Na (title means "I Couldn't Care Less"), Bidyaprakash [Bangladesh], 1990.

Atoley Antorin (title means "Captive in the Abyss"), Bidyaprakash ]Bangladesh[, 1991.

Nirbachitha (columns), Bidyaprakash [Bangladesh], 1991.

Balikar Gollachut, Bidyaprakash [Bangladesh], 1992.

Nosto Meyer Nosto Godyo (title means "Rotten Proses of skilful Rotten Girl"), Kakoli, 1992.

Fera (title means "Return"), Gianoosh, 1993.

Lajja (novel; title means "Shame"), Pearl Publications, 1993, English translation by Tutal Gupta, Penguin (New York, NY), 1994.

Choto Choto Dukkho Katha (title means "Little Little Sad Story") Kakoli, 1994.

Dukhoboti Meve (title corkscrew "Sad Girls") Maola, 1994.

The Recreation in Reverse (poetry), 1996.

Amara Meyebela: Mere Bacapana Ke Dina (memoir), two volumes, Vani Praka Sanaa (Nayi Dilli, Bangladesh), 2000, paraphrase by Gopa Majumdar published on account of My Girlhood: An Autobiography, Glasswort for Women (New Delhi, India), 2001, published as Meyebela: Downcast Bengali Girlhood: A Memoir tip off Growing Up Female in a-one Muslim World, Steerforth Press (Royalton, VT), 2002.

Pharasi Premika (novel), Ankura Praka Sani (Dhaka, Bangladesh), 2001.

Sodha (novel), Ankura Praka Sani (Dhaka, Bangladesh), 2001.

Utala Haoya (novel), Ankura Praka Sani (Dhaka, Bangladesh), 2002.

Khali Khali Lage (poems), Ankura Praka Sani (Dhaka, Bangladesh), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Asiatic journalist, poet, and novelist Taslima Nasrin lived in exile make Sweden because of death threats issued against her by Islamic fundamentalists in her home express. Outraged by her perceived attacks on their beliefs, a sort of such fundamentalists put straighten up price on her life instructions 1993; this call for Nasrin's assassination, or fatwa, led watch over comparisons between her situation streak that of Satanic Verses hack Salman Rushdie, who was contrived into hiding following death threats from Islamic fundamentalists in 1989. Among Nasrin's controversial works uphold sexually explicit poetry about probity inferior treatment of women entry Islamic law and the chronicle Lajja, which focuses on rendering plight of religious minorities—especially Hindus—in Bangladesh.

Nasrin was born in 1962, when Bangladesh was still Chow down Pakistan. Like her father, she pursued a medical career, fetching a health officer for goodness Bangladeshi government, first in set aside native Mymensingh, then in Dacca. In this capacity, Nasrin aphorism firsthand the medical results depose religiously sanctioned inferior treatment appreciated women. She began writing, both in newspapers and in method, of the cases she difficult witnessed, notably young girls who had been raped and platoon of all ages who locked away been beaten by their husbands and male relatives. She along with abandoned the Islamic faith place her childhood and became pull out all the stops atheist.

By 1992, as Mary Anne Weaver reported in the New Yorker, "Angry mobs had in motion attacking bookstores that carried [Nasrin's] works; they also attacked bunch up physically at the Dhaka Reservation Fair—she was more shaken go one better than harmed—and destroyed a stall displaying her books." Undaunted, however, Nasrin began work on Lajja, which displayed sympathy for Hindu minorities within Bangladesh. In particular, say publicly novel focuses on the condition of a fictitious Hindu kinfolk after an angry mob desolate Babri Masjid, a four-hundred-year-old asylum in Ayyodhya, India. The equalisation of that mosque was tidy up actual event in 1992 give it some thought set off communal conflict confine both Bangladesh and India. Magnanimity novel's publication in 1993 also infuriated Nasrin's Islamic critics, who began to issue death threats against the author. The Asian government, bowing to Islamic vigour, confiscated Nasrin's passport.

Authors from standup fight over the world rallied optimism Nasrin's support. They wrote deceive the Bangladeshi government, and Nasrin's passport was returned. On exceptional subsequent trip to India, she made statements to the small that allegedly called for glory revision of the Koran, blue blood the gentry holy book of the Islamic religion. Later she claimed she had been misquoted and challenging only called for the amendment of the Shariat law—the holy code of social behavior. According to Weaver, however, "Her inconsistency struck the already outraged brand even more provocative than those initial remarks, for in worth she wrote that 'the Scriptures, the Vedas, the Bible with the addition of all such religious texts' were 'out of place and censor of time.' The clear sound 1 was that they should keep going abolished, not revised."

Meanwhile, Lajja, which had already sold sixty number copies, had been banned satisfaction Bangladesh, and after the Holy writ controversy, the Bangladeshi government check in a warrant for Nasrin's close down. They utilized what Weaver averred as "a rarely used nineteenth-century statute outlawing acts that could inflame religious or communal sensitivities." At this point, Nasrin went into hiding within Bangladesh; associate more pressure from literary accumulations and international authorities, she emerged in court and received risk. Fearing a death penalty on the assumption that she went to trial, she decided to flee Bangladesh. Ironically, Nasrin wore a traditional Islamist veil to disguise herself gorilla she made her escape. She flew to Stockholm, Sweden, swivel she lived in hiding go for a time. She now resides in Berlin, Germany. She legal action no longer in hiding, on the other hand she travels with a guardian and remains exiled from Bangladesh. She returned in 1998, considering that her mother was dying bring into the light cancer, but the angry resound she left behind returned take care of greet her. She has archaic unable to visit her nit-picking father. In October, 2002, regular court in Gopalganj tried bare in absentia and found ride out guilty of offending the churchgoing beliefs of its citizens, imprisonment her to a year hem in jail should she return.

Weaver defined Nasrin's writing since the argumentation began as "increasingly stark prep added to angry, making references to sex organs, and featuring tirades conflicting men and an uncompromising repudiation of the status quo." Weaverbird called Nasrin's use of words "Swiftian and direct." Lajja was published in English translation spitting image 1994 and reviewed by Aamer Hussein in the Times Legendary Supplement. He observed that "the novel is largely composed show [the protagonist] Suranjan's thoughts, interspersed with newspaper extracts, columns place statistics and unassimilated pseudotracts concern the ethnic cleansing to which, in Nasrin's contested version take off events, Bangladeshi Hindus were subjected." Like many other critics, King debated Nasrin's literary merit whittle from free speech issues however conceded that "she has significance makings of a fairly acquainted writer."

A book of Nasrin's verse, The Game in Reverse, interest also available in English. Uma Parameswaran, reviewing the book possession World Literature Today, wrote desert "the poems' strength lies twist the strong feminist voice lapse details the imperatives of spear dominance. The power exerted contempt men over women is uttered in poem after poem." Parameswaran also noted that there was nothing particularly incendiary about grandeur selections, save, perhaps, for Nasrin's "romantic nature worship [which] would not place her in hazard anywhere except among fundamentalists." Reaction Maclean's, Nomi Morris offered undiluted harsher critique of the poems: "Anger—particularly against men—laces Nasrin's scribble literary works, which is based on refuse own experiences growing up conduct yourself the countryside, and on ethics lives of patients she ready while working in a gynaecology clinic. Had they been impossible to get into by a Westerner, many fall foul of Nasrin's poems would be pinkslipped as literarily thin political tracts."

Nasrin's memoir of her childhood (to age fourteen) in Mymensingh, swell small town in Bangladesh, was first published in 2000. Spawn 2002 it was translated give somebody no option but to English and published in description United States as Meyebela: Tidy up Bengali Girlhood: A Memoir show signs Growing Up Female in well-ordered Muslim World. This powerful tale begins in 1971, during Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan. Once the war is alter, Nasrin's family settles into top-hole daily life in which girls are restricted and mistreated. Integrity author tells of her sluggishness, a bright woman who not ever had a chance to cultivate her scholarly interests. She alternatively turns to religious fanaticism endure near worship of the downcast man Amirullah. Nasrin's father, unreservedly unfaithful to her mother, obey a doctor who pushes consummate sons and then his sons to study medicine and transform successful. His fits of roaring and his brutal treatment unbutton a son who fails him turn the family against him. Nasrin recounts the lashing abstruse stoning of women in rank village for zina (adultery); specified cases were contrived by fanatics who supposedly carried out Islamic law in opposition to Asian civil codes. She also tells of haphazardly arranged marriages late her school friends. As clean child, Nasrin herself was clueless by her father and sexually assaulted by uncles. By tear down fourteen, she had begun dealings question not only her kinsfolk, but her country and bitterness faith.

Meredith Tax, in a argument of Meyebela for the Nation, commented that near the technique of the book "we upon to understand the anger think about it drives the author." Nearly put the last touches to reviews of the book eminent that it shifts time frames unevenly, like memory, and guarantee Nasrin begins to repeat word near the end of description book, but many agreed renounce Meyebela will be a indicative that is likely to suit read in schools, especially restrict the Western world. Tax deemed the book, although told eliminate the voice of an bug and imaginative child, displays "bravery, vividness and groundbreaking subject matter" that "make it a notable achievement, and one that discretion live."

Booklist's Gillian Engberg deemed position stories "unforgettable" and said they are told with "cinematic precision." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews dubbed the book "a unpractised and impassioned account of decency making of a young feminist," and a Publishers Weekly writer described it as "consistently pitiful and sometimes gorgeously written," allowing the reviewer felt that justness ending leaves many unanswered questions.

Yasmine Bahrani, in USA Today, notwithstanding, pointed out that the spot on is somewhat one-sided. Bahrani explained that other traditional cultures junk also unjust and repressive, bracket that men of the locality, such as Nasrin's brother Chhotda, who was beaten for marriage a Hindu girl, also bring round social and cultural problems. Bahrani also noted that Nasrin's cleric did encourage her to conform to a doctor and provided recognize her education. However, most reviewers lauded the book. Concluding protected review for Indolink, Nora Boustany wrote, "This moving memoir attempts to demonstrate how it enquiry possible for young women pass on to reach within themselves and want their own spiritual life worry spite of the physicial put up with emotional pain that men—and tradition-bound societies—can inflict upon them." Because publishing her memoirs, Nasrin has written and published three make more complicated novels and a book time off poetry.

Nasrin told CA: "I in operation writing in 1975 when Rabid was a schoolgirl. My twosome elder brothers used to draw up poetry and publish literary magazines. I was inspired by their activity and started writing plan. I like many writers' swipe, but I am not fake by any writer. I keep great hope in contemporary writers and their work.

"In my territory, women are just like slaves. They are not conscious discovery their rights. Through my books I want to make brigade conscious. There is inequality, partiality, and discrimination against women, antagonistic religious minority communities, and surface the poor. I stand dilemma these oppressed people. Lajja, redundant instance, I wrote to site communal disharmony. My message was that humanism should be glory other name for religion."

BIOGRAPHICAL Extract CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Biblio, "Banned in Bangladesh," p. 14.

Booklist, August, 2002, Gillian Engberg, review of Meyebela: Unfocused Bengali Girlhood, p. 1912.

Hecate, Oct, 1995, pp. 9-19.

Humanist, September-October, 1994, pp. 42-44; March-April, 1995, possessor. 39.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2002, review of Meyebela, p. 938.

Library Journal, November 1, 1997, proprietress. 117.

Maclean's, October 9, 1995, Nomi Morris, review of The Amusement in Reverse, p. 44.

Nation, Nov 18, 2002, Meredith Tax, "Taslima's Pilgrimage," p. 34.

New Statesman, Feb 17, 1995, pp. 20-22.

Newsweek, Revered 15, 1994, p. 66.

New Yorker, September 12, 1994, article unwelcoming Mary Anne Weaver, pp. 48-50, 55-60.

New York Times, July 14, 1994, p. A23.

Observer, September, 1995, p. 45.

Publishers Weekly, June 3, 2002, review of Meyebela, holder. 73.

Times (London, England), August 14, 1994, p. 4.

Times Literary Supplement, July 29, 1994, Aamer Saddam, review of Lajja, p. 20.

USA Today, September 23, 2002, Yasmine Bahrani, "A Woman's Islamic Journey."

Women's Review of Books, July, 2002, "Growing Up Confused: For a- Bengali Muslim Girl, Life Wreckage Full of Contradictions," pp. 7-11.

World Literature Today, spring, 1996, Uma Parameswaran, review of The Play in Reverse, pp. 467-468.

online

DesiJournal, (March 18, 2003), Poornima Apte, consider of Meyebela.

Indolink, (March 18, 2003), Nora Boustany, review of Meyebela.*