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“No intention to hurt anyone”

KOLKATA: “It has never been my intention to hurt the sentiments of the people of India. If there are any who have felt aggrieved over my writings, I am sorry,” Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen said on Wednesday.

Ms. Nasreen spoke to The Hindu over telephone a short while after a statement by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha.

“I have had no intention to hurt anyone’s feelings,” Ms. Nasreen said from an undisclosed location to where she was shifted from the Rajasthan Guest House on Monday night.

“All that I have been writing about is human rights with particular reference to the rights of women, gender equality and secular humanism,” she added.

“I sincerely hope that the people of West Bengal will welcome me back to the State and that they will understand that my intentions were never to hurt them in any way.” “I have been writing for more than three decades and my works focus on the unfortunate plight of women in society. The purpose is to enlighten women as much as I can so that we create a better society for all,” she said.

Bindu Shajan Perappadan reports from New Delhi:

Speaking to The Hindu over the telephone, Ms. Nasreen said, “People who are protesting are those who haven’t read my book.”

Recalling the trauma of her past, Ms. Nasreen said: “Several years ago I was thrown out of my country Bangladesh and I toured the world looking for a home. I went to the West but never found a home there. It was in Kolkata that I finally felt that I could settle down. This is a place I could relate to. I understand Kolkata society, the way of life and the language. This was a place where I felt safe and never felt pursued by fundamentalists. Now so many years later, I feel like I have been thrown out of my home yet again. I just want to get back home.”

Missing her pet cat, Ms. Nasreen said she wanted to start afresh.

“I want to get back to my writing and my life in Kolkata. This fugitive kind of a lifestyle that I have been subjected to has left me exhausted. I want all this to end. I miss my cat, she is my daughter. I know she misses me too.”

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