Taslima Nasrin was born on August 25, 1962. She is a writer, doctor, feminist, and activist from Bangladesh and Sweden. She is known for writing about women's rights and criticizing Islam. Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh. She has also been banned from living in the Bengal region, which includes Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.

In the early 1990s, she became well-known worldwide for her essays and novels that discuss women's issues and criticize religions she says are harmful to women. Since 1994, she has lived in exile because religious leaders have issued death threats against her. After spending over ten years in Europe and the United States, she moved to India in 2004. She has lived there with a special visa that allows her to stay for extended periods.

Early life and career

Nasrin was born in East Pakistan to Dr. Rajab Ali and Edul Ara, who were from Mymensingh. Her father was a doctor and taught medical law at Mymensingh Medical College, Sir Salimullah Medical College in Dhaka, and Dhaka Medical College. After finishing high school in 1976 and college-level studies in 1978, she attended Mymensingh Medical College, which was connected to the University of Dhaka. She graduated in 1984 with an MBBS degree. Her ancestor, Haradhan Sarkar, was a Hindu Kayastha.

In college, she created and edited a poetry journal named Shenjuti. After graduating, she worked at a family planning clinic in Mymensingh. Later, she practiced medicine in the gynaecology department at Mitford Hospital and in the anaesthesia department at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. While studying and working as a doctor, she observed girls who had been raped and heard women express sadness in the delivery room when their babies were girls. Born into a Muslim family, she later became an atheist. Her writing often focused on feminist ideas.

Early in her writing career, Nasrin wrote mostly poetry. Between 1982 and 1993, she published about six poetry collections, many of which addressed the suffering of women. Her work often used strong and direct language. In the late 1980s, she began writing prose, producing three essay collections and four novels before publishing her documentary novel Lajja, which told the story of a Hindu family attacked by Muslim extremists and forced to leave the country.

Nasrin faced physical attacks and criticism for her critiques of Islam and her support for women's rights. Many people demanded her execution. In October 1993, a group called the Council of Islamic Soldiers offered a reward for her death. In May 1994, she told reporters she wanted changes to the Quran and said she only opposed Islamic religious law. In August 1994, she was accused of making statements that caused anger. Thousands of people called her an "apostate" and threatened to release poisonous snakes in the capital unless she was executed. After hiding for two months, she fled to Sweden in late 1994. She stopped working as a doctor and became a full-time writer and activist.

Life in exile

In late 1994, Nasrin left Bangladesh and lived in exile in Western Europe and North America for ten years. Her Bangladeshi passport was taken away, and she received citizenship from Sweden. She found safety in Germany. She reportedly waited six years (1994–1999) to get a visa to visit India. In 1998, she wrote Meyebela, My Bengali Girlhood, a book about her life from birth to adolescence. She never received a Bangladeshi passport to return to the country to visit her parents, both of whom are now deceased.

In 2004, India gave Nasrin a temporary permit to live in the country, and she moved to Kolkata, a city in the state of West Bengal, which shares cultural and linguistic ties with Bangladesh. In 2007, after being forced to flee, she said Kolkata was her home. India allowed her to stay in the country on a periodic basis but refused to give her Indian citizenship. While in Kolkata, Nasrin wrote for Indian newspapers and magazines, including Anandabazar Patrika and Desh, and for a time, wrote a weekly column in the Bengali version of The Statesman.

Her criticism of Islam caused opposition from religious groups. In June 2006, Syed Noorur Rehaman Barkati, the imam of Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan Mosque, admitted offering money to anyone who "publicly humiliated" Nasrin. In 2005, during a US Independence Day event in New York City, she criticized US foreign policy and tried to read her poem "America" to a Bengali audience but was booed off the stage. In March 2007, the "All India Muslim Personal Board (Jadeed)" offered 500,000 rupees for her beheading. The group’s leader, Tauqeer Raza Khan, said the reward would end only if Nasrin "apologized, burned her books, and left."

In 2007, members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen threatened Nasrin, saying they would uphold a fatwa against her and Salman Rushdie. While in Hyderabad, where she promoted Telugu translations of her work, she was attacked by party members, including three MLAs—Mohammed Muqtada Khan, Mohammed Moazzam Khan, and Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri—who were later arrested.

On August 9, 2007, Nasrin was in Hyderabad to present a Telugu translation of her novel Shodh when she was allegedly attacked by a mob led by legislators from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. A week later, Muslim leaders in Kolkata revived an old fatwa against her, urging her to leave the country and offering an unlimited reward for her death. On November 21, 2007, a protest organized by the "All India Minority Forum" in Kolkata caused chaos and required the army to restore order.

The Indian government kept Nasrin in an undisclosed location in New Delhi for over seven months, effectively placing her under house arrest. In January 2008, she was chosen for the Simone de Beauvoir award for her writing on women’s rights but declined to travel to Paris to accept it. She said she wanted to fight for her freedom in India and was hospitalized for three days due to health issues. The house arrest became an international issue, with India’s former foreign secretary, Muchkund Dubey, writing to Amnesty International to urge the organization to pressure the Indian government to allow Nasrin to return to Kolkata.

From New Delhi, Nasrin said, "I’m writing a lot, but not about Islam. This is about politics. In the last three months, I have been under severe pressure to leave West Bengal by the police." In an email interview from her safehouse, she described the stress of "this unendurable loneliness, this uncertainty, and this deathly silence." She canceled the publication of the sixth part of her autobiography Nei Kichu Nei ("No Entity") and, under pressure, removed some passages from Dwikhandito, a book linked to riots in Kolkata. She was forced to leave India on March 19, 2008.

In 2008, Nasrin moved to Sweden and later worked as a research scholar at New York University. She said her "soul lived in India" and pledged her body to the country for posthumous medical use to Gana Darpan, a Kolkata-based NGO, in 2005. She eventually returned to India but was forced to stay in New Delhi because the West Bengal government refused to let her enter. In 2016, her visa was extended for one year, and she is seeking permanent residency in India, though the Home Ministry has not yet decided.

In 2015, Nasrin was threatened with death by Al Qaeda-linked extremists. The Center for Inquiry helped her travel to the United States, where she now lives. In June 2015, the Center for Inquiry stated that her safety was "only temporary" if she could not remain in the US and announced an emergency fund to support her needs.

Literary works

Taslima Nasrin once asked if a God who created the universe, billions of galaxies, stars, and planets would promise rewards for simple actions like saying "I am the greatest and kindest" or fasting on Earth. She suggested that such a powerful creator would not be self-centered.

Nasrin began writing poetry at age thirteen. While in college in Mymensingh, she published and edited a literary magazine called SeNjuti ("Light in the Dark") from 1978 to 1983. Her first poetry collection was published in 1986, and her second collection, Nirbashito Bahire Ontore ("Banished within and without"), was published in 1989. She gained more readers when she started writing newspaper columns in the late 1980s and began writing novels in the early 1990s, which earned her recognition. In total, she has written over thirty books, including poetry, essays, novels, short stories, and memoirs. Her works have been translated into 20 languages.

Nasrin’s experiences with sexual abuse as a teenager and her work as a gynecologist influenced her writing about women’s treatment in Islam and her criticism of religion. Her writing often focuses on two themes: her struggle with the religion of her culture and her feminist beliefs. She was inspired by writers like Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, and Begum Rokeya, a Bengali writer from the time of undivided Bengal. Her later poetry also reflects her connection to Bangladesh and India.

In 1989, Nasrin began writing for the weekly political magazine Khaborer Kagoj, edited by Nayeemul Islam Khan in Dhaka. Her feminist views and anti-religious comments drew attention and shocked Bangladesh’s religious and conservative society. She later collected these writings in a book titled Nirbachita Column, which won her the Ananda Purashkar award in 1992. While living in Kolkata, she wrote weekly essays for the Bengali version of The Statesman, called Dainik Statesman. She supported an Indian Uniform Civil Code and believed that criticizing Islam is necessary to promote secularism in Islamic countries. She opposed the practice of triple talaq and called for the abolition of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. She also wrote for The Print, an online media outlet in India.

In 1992, Nasrin published two novellas that did not receive much attention. Her breakthrough novel, Lajja ("Shame"), was published in 1993 and sparked controversy because it described the struggles of a Hindu family in a Muslim-majority environment. Originally written as a short documentary, the book was expanded into a full novel. It sold 50,000 copies in Bangladesh within six months before being banned by the government that same year.

Her other famous novel is French Lover, published in 2002.

Her memoir Amar Meyebela ("My Girlhood"), published in 2002, was banned in Bangladesh in 1999 for statements that criticized Islam and the prophet Muhammad. The second part of her memoir, Utal Hawa ("Wild Wind"), was banned in 2002, and the third part, Ka ("Speak up"), was banned by the Bangladesh High Court in 2003. Under pressure from Indian Muslim activists, Ka was also banned in West Bengal, where 3,000 copies were seized. Many authors in West Bengal criticized the ban, but it remained in place until 2005. The fourth part of her memoir, Sei Sob Ondhokar ("Those Dark Days"), was banned in 2004. To date, seven parts of her autobiography have been published. These include Ami bhalo nei tumi bhalo theko priyo desh, Nei kichu nei, and Nirbashito. All seven parts have been published by the Peoples’ Book Society in Kolkata. She received her second Ananda Purashkar award in 2000 for Amar Meyebela ("My Girlhood"), which was published in English in 2002.

Nasrin's life and works in adaptation

Nasrin's life has inspired many plays and songs in different parts of the world. A Swedish singer named Magoria performed a song titled "Goddess in You, Taslima," and a French music group called Zebda created a song called "Don't Worry, Taslima" as a tribute to her.

Her writing has been turned into television shows and music. A 2006 TV series named Jhumur was based on a story written specifically for the show. Bengali singers such as Fakir Alamgir, Samina Nabi, and Rakhi Sen performed songs based on her work. In 1996, Steve Lacy, a jazz saxophonist, met Nasrin and worked with her to turn her poetry into music. The resulting piece, called The Cry, was described as both "controversial" and "compelling." It was performed in Europe and North America. At first, Nasrin was planned to recite parts of the performance, but these recitations were removed after the 1996 world premiere in Berlin due to security concerns.

Controversy

In 2019, she received criticism from people across Bangladesh after making a comment about Abrar Fahad in a Facebook post. She wrote that "Abrar Fahad behaved like a Shibir Member." One of her critics, Asif Nazrul, called her a "mentally unstable person" for making this comparison.

When Sri Lanka banned the burqa in 2019, she supported the decision on Twitter. She described the burqa as a "mobile prison," a statement that was reported by journalists.

In a 2020 tweet about A. R. Rahman's daughter, Khatija Rahman, wearing burqas, she wrote:
Khatija Rahman responded to this tweet in an Instagram post by saying:

In a 2019 tweet, she wrote on Twitter:
Some people said this comment supported eugenics. She denied this, explaining that she does not support eugenics and that her comment was not serious and had been taken out of context.

In another 2019 tweet, just days after V.G. Siddhartha's suicide, she wrote:
This tweet received many criticisms. People called the tweet irresponsible, insensitive, and promoting suicide. She defended the tweet by saying:

In a 2021 tweet about British cricketer Moeen Ali, she wrote:
She faced significant criticism for this tweet, including from Moeen's teammates Jofra Archer, Sam Billings, and Saqib Mahmood. Archer replied to her tweet, writing, "Are you okay? I don't think you're okay." Saqib Mahmood wrote, "Can't believe this. Disgusting tweet. Disgusting individual." She later explained her tweet with another post:
Archer criticized her attempt to fix the situation, writing, "Sarcastic? No one is laughing, not even yourself, the least you can do is delete the tweet." Moeen Ali's father, Munir, said:
She later deleted her original tweet.

In a 2021 tweet about Malala Yousafzai's marriage to Asser Malik, she wrote:
This tweet faced strong criticism, with people calling it Islamophobic, colonialist, and racist.

After a knife attack at a church in Nice in 2020, she tweeted, "Boycott Islam." This led to formal complaints in India about spreading disharmony and communal hate. Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale filed a complaint with India's Home Ministry, saying:
She later deleted that tweet.

In 2024, she faced backlash after claiming in a Facebook post that Mahfuj Alam was the leader of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, despite having no proof. Indian mainstream media reported this claim without checking its accuracy. Her statement led to many memes and online jokes, with people questioning her motives and even guessing about her mental state.

Writers and intellectuals for and against Nasrin

Nasrin faced criticism from writers and intellectuals in Bangladesh and West Bengal for making targeted accusations. In 2003, Syed Shamsul Haq, a Bangladeshi poet and novelist, filed a defamation lawsuit against Nasrin because of "hurtful, untrue, and silly" comments she made in her book Ka, which he claimed were written to harm his reputation. In the book, Nasrin wrote that Haq told her he had a relationship with his sister-in-law. A West Bengali poet, Hasmat Jalal, also filed a similar lawsuit. His case led the High Court to ban the book, which was later published in India as Dwikhondito. About $4 million was claimed in defamation lawsuits against Nasrin after the book was published. In 2003, the West Bengal Government, it is said, was pressured by 24 literary intellectuals to ban Nasrin’s book. Some people suggested she wrote the book to gain fame. Nasrin defended herself, explaining she wrote about her own life, not others’. She received support from Bengali writers Annada Shankar Ray, Sibnarayan Ray, and Amlan Dutta.

Recently, she was supported by author Mahasweta Devi, poet Joy Goswami, and artist Paritosh Sen. In India, writers Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad, and others defended her when she was under house arrest in Delhi in 2007. They signed a statement asking the Indian government to grant her permanent residency or, if she requested it, citizenship. In Bangladesh, writer and philosopher Kabir Chowdhury also strongly supported her.

Awards

Taslima Nasrin has been honored with many awards for her work in supporting freedom of expression. These awards and honors include:

• Ananda Puraskar from West Bengal, India in 1992 and 2000 for the books Nirbachita Kolam and Amar Meyebela
• Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought from the European Parliament in 1994
• Simone de Beauvoir Prize in 2008
• Human Rights Award from the Government of France in 1994
• Edict of Nantes Prize from France in 1994
• Kurt Tucholsky Prize from Swedish PEN, Sweden in 1994
• Feminist of the Year award from the Feminist Majority Foundation, US in 1994
• Scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service, Germany in 1995
• Honorary Doctorate from Ghent University, Belgium in 1995
• Distinguished Humanist Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union, Great Britain in 1996
• Erwin Fischer Award from the International League of Non-Religious and Atheists (IBKA), Germany in 2002
• Freethought Heroine Award from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, US in 2002
• Fellowship at the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, US in 2003
• UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for promoting tolerance and non-violence in 2004
• Honorary doctorate from the American University of Paris in 2005
• Grand Prix International Condorcet-Aron in 2005
• Woodrow Wilson Fellowship from the US in 2009
• Feminist Press award from the US in 2009
• Honorary doctorate from Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium in 2011
• Honorary citizenship from Esch, Luxembourg in 2011
• Honorary citizenship from Metz, France in 2011
• Honorary citizenship from Thionville, France in 2011
• Honorary doctorate from Paris Diderot University, Paris, France in 2011
• Universal Citizenship Passport from Paris, France in 2013
• Academy Award from the Royal Academy of Arts, Science and Literature, Belgium in 2013
• Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society
• Lifetime Achievement Award from esSENSE Global in 2025 at the Litmus '25 annual conference in Kochi, Kerala, India.

Academic contribution

• Split ISBN 978-0-670-09018-1
• Exile ISBN 978-0-670-08874-4
• French Lover ISBN 978-0-14-302810-9
• Nasrin, Taslima (2005). All About Women. New Delhi: Rupa & Co. ISBN 978-81-291-0630-8.
• Nasrin, Taslima (c. 1995). The Game in Reverse: Poems. Translated by Carolyne Wright. New York: George Braziller. ISBN 978-0-8076-1391-7.
• Nasrin, Taslima (1994). Shame. New Delhi: Penguin India. ISBN 978-0-14-024051-1. Translation of Lajja.
• Nasrin, Taslima (c. 2005). Love poems of Taslima Nasreen. New Delhi: Rupa & Co. ISBN 978-81-291-0628-5.
• Nasrin, Taslima (2002). My Bengali Girlhood. Translated by Gopa Majumdar. South Royalton: Steerforth Press. ISBN 978-1-58642-051-2. Translation of Meyebela.

• Garzilli, Enrica (1997). "A Non-Conventional Woman: Two Evenings with Taslima Nasrin. A Report." Journal of South Asia Women Studies, Volume 3, Issue 1. Published by Asiatica Association in Milan. ISSN 1085-7478.
• Zafar, Manmay (2005). "Under the gaze of the state: policing literature and the case of Taslima Nasrin." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Volume 6, Issue 3: 410–21. DOI: 10.1080/14649370500170035. ISSN 1469-8447. S2CID 144386024.
• Hasan, Md. Mahmudul (December 2010). "Free speech, ban and 'fatwa': A study of the Taslima Nasrin affair." Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Volume 46, Issue 5: 540–552. DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2010.517061. S2CID 28109396.
• Hasan, Md. Mahmudul (July 2016). "Nasrin Gone Global: A Critique of Taslima Nasrin's Criticism of Islam and Her Feminist Strategy." South Asia Research, Volume 36, Issue 2: 167–185.