Taslima Nasreen tests positive for COVID-19; says she contracted virus despite isolating at home for over a year

Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who is living in India since 2004, has tested positive for COVID-19. Nasreen noted that she contracted the virus even though she had not stepped out of her home nor allowed anyone in for the past year. In a lengthy Facebook post , she informed her followers that she had been ‘living alone with her cat for over a year’ and wished she knew how she caught the virus.

“What is the benefit? Nothing. COVID happened right. Only went out for an hour once a year, yet two months ago, to get the first dose of tika (vaccine). May have survived the trip because that dose created some antibodies [sic>,” she wrote.

আমি চিরকালই বড় দুর্ভাগা। এই যে গত বছরের মার্চ মাস থেকে একা আছি ঘরে, একখানা ইন্ডোর ক্যাট সঙ্গী, কোথাও এক পা বেরোলাম না,…

Posted by Taslima Nasrin on  Sunday, May 9, 2021

She said in her post that she had taken the first dose of the vaccine around two months ago. Her followers on Twitter wished her a speedy recovery.

Nasreen has been living in India in exile after she was expelled from her home country Bangladesh over some of her novels and her demand for equality for women. She has also been banished from Bengal. In 1994, after two months of hiding, she fled to Sweden and stayed there till 2004. After that, she moved to India.

She has been conferred with many international awards including the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thoughts from the European Parliament, the Human Rights Award from the Government of France, and Feminist of the Year from Feminist Majority Foundation in 1994.