Taslima Nasrin is of course not an Arab, she is a Bangladeshi, a Pakistani, a poet, a woman:
Because of her repeated criticisms of religious and traditional values, her strong language and uncompromising attitude against male domination, she became a target for Muslim fundamentalist groups.
Since 1990, there has been a series of campaigns against her. These included staging street demonstrations, blocking her residence and government offices, breaking into newspaper offices from which she used to work, demanding her immediate execution by hanging, and offering rewards for her death.
Instead of protecting her and taking action against fundamentalist mobs, the government bowed to the latter's pressure, stopping her from writing, confiscating her passport, ordering her detention, and ultimately forcing her to go into exile.
Since 1994, Nasreen has been moving from one European country to another while continuing her pro-women campaign and writing novels. Among her 24 books, Lajja (Shame) is the most popular. Most of her works have been translated into 10 European languages in addition to Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu, Nepalese, Persian, and Arabic.
Moreover, she received, during the period 1994-2000, prestigious literary and non-literary awards from India, Sweden, Belgium, France, US, the European Union, and international human rights organisations.Dr. Abdullah Al Madani/Gulf News Jan.25.04
Mr. Kilroy Silk owes his position to the immense economic and political power of his invisible masters and his servile obedience to their wishes. He has contributed greatly in his own small-hearted way to the climate of intolerance, fear, and irrational hatred that puts Taslima Nasrin's life in so much unnecessary danger.
