[Assam] Taslima, you not being a supporter of the ‘Bangla Razakars’, your ‘Ko’ on regional liberation movements is incongruous. Fearful of India if use of the word ‘Freedom Struggle’ a taboo; call these ‘Guerrilla wars’. ‘Insurgency’, a misfit word from you.

[Bartta Bistar]

Fundamentalists active in Bangla: Taslima

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=jan0707/at08
By A City Reporter
 GUWAHATI, Jan 6 – "Insurgent camps have a major presence in Bangladesh
because of the predominant fundamentalism and political weakness prevailing
in that country," said Taslima Nasreen, eminent Bangladeshi author, who is
in her maiden visit to the State these days. A section of Government backed
forces along with a segment of unscrupolous traders are also aiding and
abetting the insurgents, she said.

Talking to the media persons in the city today, Nasreen said insurgent
groups from various parts of the neighboring countries are taking advantage
of biased politics pursued by both the big parties – Bangladesh Nationalist
Party and Awami League. The government has also failed to check the
fundamentalist forces backing these groups, she added.

Elaborating the social and political condition of Bangladesh, the author of
several famous books, said that though the reigns of power are in the hand
of women-led parties, little has been done to uplift the condition of women
there.

"If a fatwa can be issued against the women at any time, could democracy
prevail in such a country?" she asked. "Hailing from elite political
families and enjoying the power and political sympathy in the name of their
powerful kin, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia have forgotten their
responsibilities towards the people at the grassroots, who are still
illiterate and backward", she noted.

Going hammer and tongs at the fundamentalist forces, she said that that
acquiring fame as 'Muslim fundamentalists' would do no good to the Muslim
countries.

However, she described illegal immigration as the movement of poor families
from Bangladesh into a comparatively rich country, India that provided
better economic opportunities. "The problem will get a solution only with
the economic uplift of Bangladesh," she added.

Regarding the ban on her books and the hue and cry over her free-spirited
writing, she said it is the reader who is to decide whether to read the book
or not, rather than a blanket ban on them.

The main reason my book is not selling well at the Book Fair is because it
wasn't released by someone famous.
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