Kerala - Thrissur   

Fight oppressive religious system, says Taslima

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasreen

THRISSUR: ``If women do not fight to stop being oppressed by a shameful patriarchal and oppressive religious system, then shame on women,'' says the Bangladesh writer in exile Taslima Nasreen.

Speaking at a function held here on Thursday to release a Malayalam translation of her books, Ms. Nasreen said, ``Shame on us for not protesting, for not fighting, for allowing a system to continue that will affect our children as well as our children's children.''

``We, the victims, should shout loudly. We need to be heard. We must protest loudly and demand our freedom and rights. We must refuse to be shackled, chained, beaten, and threatened. We who are women no longer must remain solitary, crying softly in lonely places,'' she said.

``I do not cry alone anymore, and because of that I have been suffering. I was thrown out of my own country. Instead of being able to live in the area of the world in which I was born and brought up, I am given the alternative of living in the West where I am forced to feel like an outsider.

``Where can I go? Nowhere. Exile, for me, is a bus stop, one where I am waiting for a bus to go home. I have been waiting in exile for more than 12 years. Still I do not feel that any home is my home, any country is my country. Mine is a hopeless, helpless feeling.

``Sometimes I ask myself, is this true, do I really have no home? One part of me says yes. Another, however, says it is not true. I do have a home. My home is love, the love I receive from women all over the world. That is my home, the love I receive from rationalists, free thinkers, secularists, and humanists.

``I regret nothing that I have done or for what I have ever written. Come what may, I will continue my fight against all the extremist, fundamentalist, intolerant forces without any compromise until death,'' Ms. Nasreen said.

Making a plea to shun the practice of using culture as a pretext to discriminate against and oppress people, Ms. Nasreen said, ``I believe that the diversity of world's many languages, cultures and ethnicities is not a pretext for conflict, but is a treasure that enriches us all. Diversity is a treasure to be appreciated.

``There is no superior, no inferior culture in this world, only various cultural patterns that make up our beautiful multicoloured mosaic. Humans should not allow barbarism, torture, oppression, humiliation, inequality or injustice in the name of culture,'' she said.

Earlier, participating in an interaction with writers, Ms. Nasreen said there was no need for Gunter Grass to renounce Nobel Prize in the wake of criticism against him for his alleged links with the Nazi movement.

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