Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Republic of Bangladesh
Dacca, Bangladesh
Your Excellency,
I write on behalf of the International Academy of Humanism to express our concern for
the safety of one of our distinguished members, Dr. Taslima Nasrin.
Limited to 70 individuals of outstanding artistic, scientific, and humanitarian
achievements, the Academy includes such renowned international figures as the Nobel
laureates Wole Soyinka, Leopold Sedar Senghar, Steven Weinberg, Herbert Hauptmann, and
Murray Gell-Mann. I and other members of the International Academy of Humanism have worked
closely with Dr. Nasrin in recent years and have found her to be an outstanding
representative of the rich culture of Bangladesh. The Academy is proud to count Dr. Nasrin
among its members, and will be unstinting in its efforts to defend this courageous
champion of human rights.
As you know, throughout her four-year unhappy exile from her homeland, Dr. Nasrin
constantly spoke of her love for Bangladesh and her people, and of her desire to return to
her home. In September of this year, Dr. Nasrin courageously returned to Bangladesh under
difficult personal circumstances. Unfortunately, instead of letting Dr. Nasrin come to
terms with her mother's fatal illness, Muslim fundamentalists in your country are renewing
calls for her execution on the charge of blasphemy.
In addition, the international community has been disturbed to hear reports of the
revival of the court case against her under Section 295 A of Bangladesh Penal Code for
having "deliberately and maliciously outraged the religious sentiments of a class of
citizens," the issuing of a warrant of arrest against her, and the court order for
seizure of her property.
Madame Prime Minister, the International Academy of Humanism implores you to ensure the
safety of Dr. Nasrin. We trust that your government will honor its sovereign obligations
under international conventions, and ensure respect for the freedom of belief guaranteed
by both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights.
Intellectual leaders and human rights campaigners around the world are rallying to
defend Dr. Nasrin's freedom of conscience. We appeal to your government to take the lead
in defending Dr. Nasrin's right to life, liberty, and free expression. We hope that your
government will publicly declare its support for Dr. Nasrin's right to live in safety in
her homeland, and will bring to justice those who call for her death.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Paul Kurtz
President, International Academy of Humanism
cc:
Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State, U.S.A.
Abdus Samad Azad, Foreign Minister, Bangladesh
U.N. High Commission for Human Rights
U.N. Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
From Salman Rushdie
To Taslima Nasrin
I am sure you have become tired of being called "the female Salman Rushdie" -
what a bizarre and comical creature that would be! - when all along you thought you were
the female Taslima Nasrin. I am sorry my name has been hung around your neck, but please
know that there are many people in many countries working to make sure that such
sloganizing does not obscure your identity, the unique features of your situation, and the
importance of fighting to defend you and your rights against those who would cheerfully
see you dead.
In reality it is our adversaries who seem to have things in common, who seem to believe
in divine sanction for lynching and terrorism. So instead of turning you into a female me,
the headline writers should be describing your opponents as "the Bangladeshi
Iranians." How sad it must be to believe in a God of blood! What an Islam they have
made, these apostles of death, and how important it is to have the courage to dissent from
it!
Great writers have agreed to lend their weight to the campaign on your behalf: Czeslaw
Milosz, Mario Vargas Llosa, Milan Kundera, and more. When such campaigns were run on my
behalf, I found them immensely cheering, and I know that they helped shape public opinion
and government attitudes in many countries.
You have spoken out about the oppression of women under Islam, and what you said needed
saying. In the West, there are too many eloquent apologists working to convince people of
the fiction that women are not discriminated against in Muslim countries or that, if they
are, it has nothing to do with religion. The sexual mutilation of women, according to this
argument, has no basis in Islam. This may be true in theory, but in many countries where
this goes on, the mullahs wholeheartedly support it. And then there are the countless
crimes of violence within the home, the inequalities of legal systems that value women's
evidence below that of men, the driving of women out of the workplace in all countries
where Islamists have come to, or even near to, power.
You have spoken out about the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh after the destruction of
the Ayodhya mosque in India by Hindu extremists. Yet any fair-minded person would agree
that a religious attack by Muslims on innocent Hindus is as bad as an attack by Hindus on
innocent Muslims. Such simple fairness is the target of the bigots' rage, and it is that
fairness that, in defending you, we seek to defend.
You are accused of having said that the Koran should be revised (though you have said
that your were referring only to Islamic religious code). You may have seen that only last
week the Turkish authorities have announced a project to revise these codes, so in that
regard at least you are not alone. And even if you did say that the Koran should be
revised to remove its ambiguities about the rights of women, and even if every Muslim man
in the world were to disagree with you, it would remain a perfectly legitimate opinion,
and no society that wishes to jail or hang you for expression can call itself free.
Simplicity is what fundamentalists always say they are after, but in fact they are
obscurantists in all things. What is simple is to agree that if one may say, "God
exists" then another may also say, "God does not exist"; that if one may
say "I loathe this book," then another may also say, "But I like it very
much." What is not at all simple is to be asked to believe that there is only one
truth, one way of expressing that truth, and one punishment (death) for those who say this
isn't so.
As you know, Taslima, Bengali culture - and I mean the culture of Bangladesh as well as
the Indian Bengal - has always prided itself on its openness, its freedom to think and
argue, its lack of bigotry. It is a disgrace that your government has chosen to side with
the religious extremists against their own history, their own civilization, their own
values. It is the treasure-house of the intelligence, the imagination, and the word that
your opponents are trying to loot.
I have seen and heard reports that you are all sorts of dreadful things - a difficult
woman and an advocate (horror of horrors) of free love. Let me assure you that those of us
who are working on your behalf are well aware that character assassination is normal in
such situations and must be discounted. And simplicity again has something valuable to say
on this issue: even difficult advocates of free love must be allowed to stay alive,
otherwise we would be left only with those who believe that love is something for which
there must be a price - perhaps a terrible price - to pay.
Taslima, I know that there must be a storm inside you now. One minute you feel weak and
helpless, another strong and defiant. Now you will feel betrayed and alone, and now you
will have the sense of standing for many who are standing silently for you. Perhaps in
your darkest moments you will feel you did something wrong - that those demanding your
death may have a point. This of all your goblins you must exorcise first. You have done
nothing wrong. The wrong is committed by others against you. You have nothing wrong, and I
am sure that one day soon you will be free.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Your Excellency,
The news concerning our colleague and your compatriot, Dr. Taslima Nasrin, is most
disquieting! I entreat you to exert the uttermost resources of state in protecting this
rare ambassador of Bangladesh, whose only crime is the unusual courage she continues to
display, and the consecration of her art to the upliftment of her fellow men and women.
It will be a grave crime against humanity, and a blot on the flag of your great nation,
Bangladesh, if Dr. Nasrin falls victim of mob rule, of bigotry, of fanaticism and
intolerance masquerading under the cloak of piety. Dr. Nasrin's voice is the voice of
humanism everywhere, and we trust that the conventions of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, to which Bangladesh is signatory, will guide the actions of your government
towards this courageous, and worthy representative of those values that earned Bangladesh
her enviable status among world civilizations.
With all good wishes, I remain,
Wole Soyinka
Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1986
