The Hindu : International : Taslima gets UNESCO award

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 18, 2004

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International

Taslima gets UNESCO award

PARIS: The United Nations' cultural agency on Tuesday awarded Taslima Nasrin, a Bangladeshi writer who has received death threats from some extremist Islamist groups, its tolerance and non-violence prize. Koiichi Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, gave the $100,000 UNESCO Mandajeet Singh prize to Ms. Nasrin at the agency's headquarters in Paris. Ms. Nasrin, the author of more than 20 books in Bengali, has called for secular education and laws that would provide greater gender equality in her home country, UNESCO said. Some Muslim clergy in Bangladesh have issued a fatwa, or religious edict, allowing any Muslim to kill Ms. Nasrin, because they allege her first book `Shame,' showed disrespect to Islam. Ms. Nasrin fled Bangladesh in 1994 after extremists threatened to kill her, and spent last year on a fellowship at Harvard University. The prize from the U.N. Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation, awarded every two years was created in 1995 with help from Mr. Singh, an Indian writer and diplomat. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi won the award in 2002. (In the picture, Ms. Nasrin is seen receiving the prize.)

— AP

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