My life is under threat: Taslima

Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen feels that her life is under threat from "fundamentalist forces" but says she will continue to write despite attacks on her.

Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen feels that her life is under threat from "fundamentalist forces" but says she will continue to write despite attacks on her.

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The writer, who is now in Sweden after leaving India in March last year, says that extremists "who know nothing about my work" are trying to fulfil their political ambitions by targeting her constantly.

"Some extremists are after me. They want to suppress my voice. But they should learn from the past experience that I am not amongst those who get terrorised by their threats or attacks or fatwas. I have full faith in Indian democracy," the 46-year-old writer said.

"I can never forget the attack on me in Hyderabad. I had a close encounter with death for almost half an hour. I fear that I might get assassinated some day by fundamentalists while reading my poems or raising any human issue," Taslima said, recalling the attack on her in Hyderabad Press Club last year. She was there to release the Telugu edition of her novel 'Shodha'.

These were stated by Taslima's close friend and writer, Kripashankar Chaubey, in his forthcoming book 'Najarband Taslima' (Taslima in House Arrest).

Nasreen, bundled out of Kolkata in November last year following violent protests by All India Minority Forum against her stay in India, was staying at an undisclosed place in New Delhi for security reasons, before she left to Sweden in March.

Ever since fleeing her homeland Bangladesh in 1994, Nasreen had spent several years in Europe and the US before coming to India in 2003.

Nasreen, whose novel 'Lajja' had created a flutter in Bangladesh, said, "My writing has never caused any kind of sensation. Neither in Bangladesh nor in India. In Bangladesh also, fundamentalists could dare to target me only after getting government support."

"I am not one of those who can not utter a single word after receiving a slap. Neither I was amongst those girls who count stars in the night on the terrace of their home. I dared to be like man in the man oriented society," the writer said.