Taslima Nasrin: The exiled Bangladeshi author who returns to Kolkata after 19 years
Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin on Friday (July 31, 2026) returned to Kolkata after nearly 19 years, describing the visit as an emotional homecoming to
Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin on Friday (July 31, 2026) returned to Kolkata after nearly 19 years, describing the visit as an emotional homecoming to a city she still considers her own. Her return marks her first visit to Kolkata since November 2007, when she was forced to leave the city following violent protests over her writings. The departure ended what she had often described as the closest thing to home after her exile from Bangladesh. Homecoming “I feel as though I am returning to my own country. Bengal has never been divided in my heart by a border or a barbed-wire fence. The door to the eastern part of Bengal remains closed to me, so for now, this part of Bengal is my home,” she said. Nasrin said she was returning “with joy, but also with pain”, recalling that Kolkata had given her a home, friends, readers and a sense of belonging before she was compelled to leave. Describing the visit as more than a personal homecoming, she said it symbolised the return of a voice that religious fundamentalists had once sought to silence. A literary return to Kolkata The author is set to make her first public appearance in Kolkata at an anti-fundamentalism literary programme at Rabindra Sadan, where she is expected to recite poetry. She also thanked the organisers and the West Bengal government for facilitating her visit and providing security, while maintaining that a writer’s freedom should remain a fundamental right irrespective of the ideology of the government in power. Though conceived as a literary gathering, the event has inevitably acquired political significance, coming months after the BJP formed the government in West Bengal and amid renewed debate over freedom of expression, secularism and the State’s approach to religious sensitivities.
The BJP government has sought to present her homecoming as a correction of what it describes as the failure of successive Left Front and Trinamool Congress governments to defend free speech in the face of religious pressure. Exiled from Bangladesh The Bangladeshi author has lived in exile since the 1990s. She faced protests in Bangladesh and received threats from Islamist groups for her outspoken writings on women’s rights and religious extremism. Her criticism of Islamic fundamentalism has attracted both support and criticism. Nasrin, who has spent more than three decades in exile, said she was expelled from her country for arguing that religious scriptures were no longer relevant to contemporary society. She received threats from Islamic fundamentalists for her views on Islam and the Quran. Banished from Bengal After fleeing Bangladesh in 1994 following death threats over her novel Lajja, she settled in Kolkata in 2004, embracing the Bengali-speaking city as a cultural refuge in exile. That association ended abruptly in November 2007 after violent protests erupted over portions of her memoir Dwikhandito, which had been banned by the then Left Front government in 2003 for allegedly hurting the sentiments of sections of the Muslim community. As the protests intensified and the Army was deployed to restore order in parts of Kolkata, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government asked Ms. Nasrin to leave the city. She was moved to Jaipur and later to Delhi before eventually relocating abroad. Despite this, she repeatedly expressed a desire to return to Kolkata, even if only to participate in literary events. ‘Lajja’ play row Nasrin has said she was forced to leave West Bengal on the grounds that her presence could provoke unrest orchestrated by fundamentalists.
The BriefWire