Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin on Sunday compared the Pahalgam terror attack to the 2016 Dhaka cafe siege, saying “terrorism will stay as long as Islam is there.”

According to news agency PTI, while speaking at the Delhi Literature Festival, the Lajja author remarked, “Islam has not evolved in 1,400 years.” She added, “Until it does, it will continue to breed terrorists. In the 2016 Dhaka attack, Muslims were slaughtered because they could not recite the Kalma. This is what happens when faith is allowed to overrule reason and humanity.”

Criticism of Islamic institutions and call for Uniform Civil Code

Taslima Nasrin also condemned the growth of religious institutions, saying, “In Europe, churches have become museums, but Muslims are constructing mosques everywhere. There are thousands and they still desire more. What they give birth to are jihadists. There must be no madrasas. Children should study all books, not one.”

Forced into exile in 1994 after being accused of blasphemy, Nasrin has since lived in Sweden, the US, and India. She shared her emotional connection to India, saying, “I am a permanent resident of the United States and lived there for 10 years, but I always felt like an outsider. It was only when I came to Kolkata that I felt at home. Even after being thrown out of West Bengal, I found another home in Delhi. This country has given me a sense of belonging that my own country could not. I love India. It feels like home,” she added.

Turning her attention to women’s rights, Nasrin criticised the situation in her homeland and expressed support for legal reform. “Every civilised country must have a UCC. India too. I support it. Islamic patriarchs want Quranic rights. Rights must never be religious. If women’s security is compromised in the name of culture, religion or tradition, then we must question that culture. A society that cannot protect half of its population is a failed society,” she said.

Who is Taslima Nasrin?

Taslima Nasrin, a physician by profession and author by choice, became internationally known in 1993 with the release of her novel Lajja. Islamic clerics branded the novel as blasphemous, prompting a fatwa against her. In turn, the government of Bangladesh cancelled her passport and directed her to stop writing.
Protesting the actions of the government, she resigned from her medical practice in 1993. Under threat to her life, Nasrin left Bangladesh overnight and has been in exile since then.
She first took refuge in Sweden and later shifted to France. Now she has sought permission from the Indian government to live in France.
Nasrin had been in exile in India since 1994 but was forced out of Kolkata in 2007 after Islamist militants staged violent protests against her writing.
Lajja depicts the Hindu plight in Bangladesh and the communal violence that erupted after the destruction of the Babri Masjid in India in 1992. It tells the story of the fear a Hindu family felt during the retaliatory attacks.
One of her other works, Dwikhandito, and some of her public remarks created mass controversy and led to protests that became violent.
The matter reached such a point that the West Bengal government recommended that she leave the state for safety. She was first shifted to Jaipur and then Delhi under protection by the government before finally leaving India.
Even after residing out of Kolkata for years, Nasrin had repeatedly evinced a strong emotional attachment to the city and a yearning to come back. Successive West Bengal governments, however, have rejected her appeals, reasoning that she posed potential security risks.
Even as her stay in India remains a politically sensitive issue, her appeal to rejoin remains supported by sections of the literati and political circles.
Taslima Nasrin has won many high-profile awards over the years, such as the Ananda Puroshkar (an Indian literary award), the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought given by the European Parliament, Sweden’s PEN Kurt Tucholsky Award, and the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize in 2004 for her autobiography Amar Meyebela.