Suzanne Ibrahim:
Taslima Nasrin, a courageous writer who dared to live in exile, has faced a barrage of criticism. Whenever a writer or researcher broaches a subject related to religion, many, under ambiguous slogans, swiftly mobilize to confront anyone who dares to approach the electrified fence of religious discourse. This has made it easy for any aspiring writer seeking widespread and quick fame to delve into this field, inviting declared wars, accusations of apostasy, and demands for their blood – a path some have deliberately chosen.
Salman Rushdie’s novels like “Satanic Verses” and Rachid Boudjedra’s “The Funeral” to Edward Kharrat’s “The Eagle’s Path” and others, writers as Faraj Fouda and Nasr Hamed Abu Zaid have faced unrelenting attacks. They have not been spared from the scrutiny and condemnation, despite presenting their arguments with calm and objectivity.
The West has identified our deep pain points, skillfully luring our unperceptive anger to where they desire, creating traps that entangle us in irrational reactions.
Some zealous defenders of Islam not only fail to defend it effectively but contribute to tarnishing the image of Islam and Muslims through uncalculated extremist reactions. A gentle voice in discussions, it is said, earns multiple times what sound logic earns. Imagine the consequences of openly advocating bloodshed, excommunication, and proclaiming judgments of faith upon people!
In this context, we can discuss what the Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin wrote in her most famous novel, “Shame.”
She Dared… So Was Exiled
Taslima Nasrin, a physician who abandoned medicine for the harsh reality of writing, has been expressing her views on women’s issues since the age of fifteen. Before her novel “Shame,” she had already published 14 books. Married three times, her failed experiences dominated many of her writings, attacking men in general.
Immediately after the novel’s release, sixty thousand copies were sold in five months, prompting the Bangladeshi government to confiscate it. On June 4, 1994, a court in Dhaka sentenced Taslima Nasrin, born in 1963 to a Muslim family, to two years in prison on charges of blasphemy and insulting Islam. Extremists demanded her blood and the burning of the novel. Two years after the novel’s publication, Taslima Nasrin sought political asylum in Europe, fleeing imprisonment and death threats. In 2007, she faced a public assault in India by supporters of an extremist Islamic party, filing a complaint against her for “hurting Muslim sentiments” with her “anti-Islamic” writings. Under Indian penal law, Taslima Nasrin faced up to three years in prison. She lives in exile, moving between Europe, the United States, and India, as she continues to receive death threats from radical Islamists.
Rejecting Bigotry
In the introduction to her novel, Taslima Nasrin states that the book, written in seven days, addresses the persecution of Hindus, the religious minority in Bangladesh. The novel aims to reject sectarianism and bigotry in all religions, opposing the use of religion as a means of aggression.
If one reads “Shame,” they will be surprised at the furious reactions, including calls for the author’s blood. Despite the protagonist, Suranjan, expressing rejection of sectarianism and discrimination between religions, advocating for religion to be about love and tolerance, the backlash was severe.
The protagonist recalls a favorite saying: “Problems related to religion are, in fact, a manifestation of practical shortcomings and objections to them. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of this heartless world, and the soul of the soulless society…”
Regarding kidnapping incidents, he states, “There is no difference. The suffering of the victims and their families is the same regardless of their religion.”
Suranjan’s Muslim friends, not overly religious, accepted him as a close friend despite being Hindu. Suranjan also had Hindu friends, but he was closer to Kamal, Polok, Haider, Bilal – the Muslim friends who supported him more in times of trouble.
The Logic of Power, Not Religion
The novel’s protagonist, Suranjan, exonerates religion from all the bloodshed, stating, “All this talk about religion, tell me, do they really believe in it? The terrorists, the youth of the Shibir group, did this. They burned the party office, the library, and the Indian Airlines office.”
“The strange thing is that all religions have the same goal – peace. And now, all this turmoil is happening in the name of religion, and peace is missing. Much blood is shed, and many people suffer.”
“Do you understand, Suranjan, all these incidents are a form of suppression of the weak by the strong, and the rich by the poor? If you are rich, it won’t matter much whether you are Hindu or Muslim. Unfortunately, this is the rule of the capitalist system. If you look closely, you will find that poor Muslims also suffer injustice. This is because the rich always exploit the poor. They don’t care if their victims are Hindus or Muslims.”
“Do you know the truth? Those who commit acts of violence are not motivated by love for any religion. Their main goal is theft and looting.”
“The fundamentalists try to gain power worldwide.”
Preventing Anger
In her novel “Shame,” Taslima Nasrin did not explicitly mention Islam but rather referred to Muslims, not all Muslims but specified the extremists and fundamentalists among them. These individuals continue to afflict our societies with their actions. It seems that one of the priorities for Arab intellectuals and enlightened religious figures is to confront these negative aspects through proactive engagement, as these extremists and fundamentalists occupy broad spaces within Arab actions. This harms us more than Western criticism.
Important Note
This article was banned from publication years ago in a governmental Syrian newspaper, as a gesture of consideration for the religiously inclined public. Was this decision wise and sound?
About the writer:
Suzanne Ibrahim is a Syrian/ Swedish poet, author, translator, and journalist. She arrived in Sweden in February 2018 as an ICORN guest writer. She studied English literature at AL Baath University and had a diploma in education from the same university in Syria. She had a long experience in journalism in many different press and newspapers.
She has published five poetry books, three short stories, and one novel. In 2019, her first non-fiction novel was translated into Swedish and published: När vinden exploderar mot min hud (2019), Teg publishing, Sweden. Most of her poetry was translated into French in three books published in Paris and into Swedish, English, Catalan, Persian, and Spanish.
Her publications focus mainly on women’s affairs in society and human relations, more broadly, freedom, war, love, nature, and Sufiism.
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