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Friday, August 13, 1999 Published at 11:43 GMT 12:43 UK

Bangladesh bans new Taslima book


Bangladesh bans new Taslima book
By Kamal Ahmed in Dhaka

The Bangladeshi Government has banned yet another book by the controversial feminist writer Taslima Nasreen.

This is the second ban this year on Ms Nasreen's writings.

Earlier, a poem written in memory of her mother who died from cancer attracted government disapproval.

The poem was published in an Indian Bengali-language weekly magazine and the Bangladeshi Government blocked imports of the magazine.

Now, the government has said it will not allow Ms Nasreen's book, My Childhood, from being imported, sold or distributed in Bangladesh.

It also said that the book might create what it called adverse effects and hurt the people's religious sentiments.

The first book by Ms Nasreen to have been banned by the Bangladeshi Government was Lajja or Shame.

She was reported to have told an Indian newspaper that Islamic religious edicts should be changed - comments that provoked anger among some militant Islamic groups.

The militants pronounced a death sentence on the writer and offered $2,000 dollars to anyone who killed her.

Ms Nasreen's situation was likened to the writer Salman Rushdie when she had to flee the country in August 1994.

She returned late last year to visit her ailing mother and faced renewed threats from extremist Islamic activists.

After her mother's death, Ms Nasreen left the country and is reported be living in Paris.


South Asia Contents

Country profiles

Relevant Stories

Taslima goes back into exile (26 Jan 99 | South Asia)
Should Islam allow more free speech? Your reaction (25 Sep 98 | Talking Point)
Bangladesh police hunt feminist writer (25 Sep 98 | South Asia)
Exiled writer returns to Bangladesh (13 Aug 99 | South Asia)

Internet Links

An open letter from Salman Rushdie to Taslima Nasreen

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