I wrote on TMV about Taslima, a poet and doctor, against whom a fatwa to behead her had been called ….for she dared to write poetry about “honor killings”; she was imprisoned for writing about women taken to the stadium and stoned to death while the mullahs present were laughing.
Read on TMV May 18, 2007: Four Arrested In Honor Killing and a New Call for Beheading Taslima Nasrin
http://themoderatevoice.com/?s=taslima
Yesterday she was attacked at a book signing of her work. To me, it is AS noteworthy, that men tried to protect her as that men tried to attack her. There are few stories about the men of the world who have unbitter and heroic hearts despite all reason to be bitter. I know that for many, this is non-news. For many women, they don’t want a man ‘intervening.’ But, for a person like myself who has had many challenges in the world, these are the kind of men, the kind of people, that I most admire. Ever. Always. Brothers by bloodline of the soul.
I often think that many of us, in these times, find we are rowing down a river of burning garbage with snipers on both shores. Many of us know we’re not crewing a ship, but a tea cup with sails made of memories of the worst and the best of what we’ve lived. And, there under one of the small rowing benches, is the Life Force protected under a worn tarp, still glowing. Our work: to carry that forward unharmed.
But, carrying such precious cargo through this perpetual dual-war zone we all seem to live in at present on many fronts, will not and can never be done without the help of those who, despite varying religions, politics, attitudes, opinions and other, are also strong-minded and soul-minded, both… Both.
Though there are some in the world who find it easier to breathe scathing smoke rather than life-giving oxygen to others, those who attempt to wither most all they touch… that there are others who are brave in ways that teach and shelter and offer life to others without being preemptory– that there are men (and women) who first-person, try to help to shelter despite blowback to themselves…these I bless.
I believe such souls in turn bless goodness in this earth… goodness that would otherwise, though precious, go unblessed and be disheartened under myriad unwarranted attacks. The world is made poorer and poorer then… more and more run by the fire starters who take strange arousal from conflagrations, and who ever try to force-feed that they are ‘right’… all at the expense of building toward others a living bridge that holds….
Taslima Nasrin writes to attempt to protect others. That some brave souls see she merits protection from those who seek to harm her mind, her creativity, her spirit and her body… this is a huge often overlooked news… a news that can be heartening to many, and this is why I brought it here.
Tracy Clark-Flory reports
Feminist author attacked in India
A mob of Muslim extremists assail writer Taslima Nasreen and call for her murder.Aug. 10, 2007 | Taslima Nasreen, an outspoken feminist author who has railed against the treatment of women under religion, particularly Islam, showed up for her book release party yesterday in Andhra Pradesh, India. A mob of Muslim extremists also showed up to combat her depiction of Islam as oppressive to women … by throwing things at her and shouting for her death.
A crowd of 100 protesters, including a handful of Indian lawmakers, hurled a “leather case, bunches of flowers and other objects at her head and threatened her with a chair,” reports Reuters. By one account she was also slapped. Others tried to protect her from the onslaught and police eventually managed to escort her to safety; she walked away with only a bruised forehead.
As well as yet another reminder that plenty of people would like her head — quite literally. Just in March of this year an extremist Indian Muslim group offered an $11,319 reward for anyone willing to behead this “notorious woman.” This is nothing new; Nasreen has been avoiding execution since 1994 when her sacrilegious prose led to calls for her death in her birthplace of Bangladesh (which forced her to flee to Sweden and later India).
It’s no surprise, then, that Nasreen said the attack would not intimidate her into silence. Or, as she wrote in a poem:
I, come what may, will not be silenced.
Come what may, I will continue my fight for equality and justice without any compromise until my death.
Additional reportage from India here:
HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) – Muslim protesters assaulted the exiled Bangladeshi author and feminist Taslima Nasreen at a book launch in Hyderabad on Thursday, incensed by her repeated criticism of Islam and religion in general.
Some radical Muslims hate Nasreen for saying Islam and other religions oppress women.
On Thursday, lawmakers and members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party attacked her at the press club in Hyderabad at the launch of a Telugu translation of one of her novels.
An uneasy-looking Nasreen backed into a corner as several middle-aged men threw a leather case, bunches of flowers and other objects at her head and threatened her with a chair, according to a Reuters witness and television pictures.
Some of the mob shouted for her death.
Other men tried to shield her and catch the projectiles. She ended up with a bruised forehead, and described the attack as barbaric before being taken to safety by police.
Nasreen fled Bangladesh for the first time in 1994 when a court said she had “deliberately and maliciously” hurt Muslims’ religious feelings with her Bengali-language novel “Lajja”, or “Shame”, which is about riots between Muslims and Hindus.
At the time, thousands of radical Muslims protested against her, demanding that she be killed for blasphemy, and some have continued to threaten her life ever since.
Police said they have arrested three state lawmakers from the political party along with 15 party workers.
Nasreen – sometimes spelled “Nasrin” – was born into a Muslim family in Bangladesh, a conservative, predominantly Islamic country.
The author, who lives in Kolkata, now describes herself as a secular humanist, and criticises religion as an oppressive force.
In 2004, a Muslim cleric offered a $440 reward to anyone who was able to successfully humiliate Nasreen by blackening her face with shoe polish or ink or by garlanding her with shoes.
She worked as a doctor before turning to writing, and several of her books have been banned in India and Bangladesh because they upset hardline Muslims.
The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 1994.
From Dr. E: For those who may not go to my earlier thread on Taslima: here is another of her poems which I referenced there about stoning a woman to death.
This is from Dr. Nasrin’s book, “The Game in Reverse: Poems and Essaysâ€
NOORJAHAN
by Taslima Nasrin
They have made Noorjahan stand in a hole in the courtyard
There she stands submerged to her waist, her head hanging
They’re throwing stones at Noorjahan
Stones that are striking my body
I feel them on my head, forehead, chest, back
And I hear laughing, shouts of abuse
Noorjahan’s fractured forehead pours out blood, mine also
Noorjahan’s eyes have burst, mine also
Noorjahan’s nose has been smashed, mine also
Noorjahan’s torn breast and heart have been pierced,
mine also
Are these stones not striking you?
They laugh aloud, stroking their beards
Their tupis* shaking with jubilation
As they swing their walking sticks
They with quivering and cruel eyes
speed to pierce her body, mine too
Are these arrows not piercing your body?
*headpiece
Noorjahan by Taslima Nasrin ©1995, All Rights Reserved.
T/H Dana Patillo at Salon blog: Dr. Omed Tent Show Revival