Writer 'not sure' of citizen bid

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

Ms Nasreen faced death threats in her homeland

Controversial Bangladeshi feminist writer Taslima Nasreen is leaving India this week unsure if she will be allowed back into the country.

She says she has not heard about her request for Indian citizenship or a long term residential permit.

Ms Nasreen said that the government had not rejected or accepted her request.

The writer left Bangladesh for Sweden in 1994 amid calls for her execution, but has recently lived in Calcutta, where she wants to stay permanently.

'Creative self'

She is leaving India to embark on a three-month tour of Europe and US.

Ms Nasreen told the BBC she was hopeful of being allowed to stay in India because intellectuals from all over the country were mounting pressure on the government to grant her Indian citizenship.

Ms Nasreen has supporters and detractors in India

She told the BBC that her current visa expired in March, and that she has not received any official letter in response to her application for an extension, despite media reports which said that she had been granted another six months.

Ms Nasreen, who has been living in Calcutta for several months, said that she wanted to return to India and spend the rest of her life there.

"I am a Bengali and I write in that language so I want to stay in West Bengal since I cannot stay in Bangladesh," she said.

"Otherwise that is the end of my creative self."

She said she wanted to make her home in Calcutta even though the European Union had offered her refuge.

The author fled Bangladesh in 1994 after receiving death threats from radical Muslim groups who condemned a number of her writings as blasphemous.

Other authors and intellectuals have come out in support of Ms Nasreen and said the government must grant her Indian citizenship.

I am a Bengali and I write in that language so I want to stay in West Bengal since I cannot stay in Bangladesh Taslima Nasreen

Ms Nasreen rose to prominence in 1993 after her first book, Shame, ran into problems.

She fled Bangladesh shortly afterwards, following calls for her execution.

Islamic radicals were incensed at comments she is said to have made to an Indian newspaper calling for changes in the Koran to give women more rights. Ms Nasreen denies making the remarks.