Taslima Nasreen – 1994, Bangladesh

Exiled from Bangladesh and Bengal for her secular views, the writer Taslima Nasreen fights against the oppression of women and opposes all forms of religious extremism.

Born in Bangladesh in 1962, Taslima Nasreen started writing when she was 13. She is known for her powerful works on the oppression of women and her unflinching criticism of religion, despite her forced exile and the multiple fatwas calling for her death. She is an award-winning author whose writings have been translated into 30 different languages.

Nasreen studied medicine and practised gynaecology in Bangladesh. Following the publication of Lajja in 1993, she was criticised by Islamic fundamentalists and several hundred thousand people demonstrated against her books. After spending two months in hiding, at the end of 1994 she escaped to Sweden. A secular humanist and human rights activist living in exile, she abandoned the medical profession and focused on writing. Owing to her thoughts and ideas, some of her books are banned in Bangladesh, and she herself is barred from Bengal. She was also forced out of West Bengal in eastern India in 2011, which she regards as her second home, by a fatwa issued by Kolkata clerics.

When she won the 1994 Sakharov Prize she had already sought refuge in Europe, living in exile in France and then in Sweden. In her acceptance speech, she said that she came from a part of the world where social tensions and human difficulties were unbearable and, as a writer, she could not close her eyes to the daily suffering and starvation.

A campaigner against extremism in all religions, Nasreen has urged support for the secular movements in Bangladesh to counteract the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Together with fellow Sakharov laureates Nurit Peled and Salima Ghezali, Nasreen has also published an opinion calling on ʻleaders and representatives of the EU to actively and openly encourage the Palestinian Authority to join the ICCʼ.

In 2015, she wrote publicly of the need to reform and modernise Islam in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. She stated that ʻprinciples of freedom of expression alone wonʼt do any good. One has to know what mantra makes terrorists tick and influences them to take up arms. It is important to stop the indoctrination of children with irrational religious faith at home or institutions like madrassas or mosques.ʼ

In 2018, her book Split: A Life was published in English. The book, originally written in Bengali, was banned in Bangladesh for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community. She is vocal and active on education and gender equality.