'Crossing Thresholds': Radical Notes in Women's Writings ... - JPCS

Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and SocietiesISSN No. 1948-1845 (Print); 1948-1853 (Electronic)Because of her radical stance and courageous voice, Fahmida Riaz suffered wrath of theauthorities and spent a period of self-exile in India.Bangladesh emerged as an independent state at the end of 1971 through a nine monthlong war of independence against the then West Pakistan. But, the Nation-state is yet tohave a uniform civil code regulating the domestic life of its citizenry, and women inparticular, irrespective of their affiliations (Pereira2002). Recent years have seen avirulent fundamentalism increasingly manifesting itself in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshiwriter Taslima Nasrin needs no introduction. Despised by Islamists and fundamentalists,equally loved and loathed by the reading public, considered with caution by secularintelligentsia and fellow feminists, and ultimately banned by the state, the Bangladeshiauthor has the European Parliament‘s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and theUNESCO Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non–violence. An outspokenfeminist and secularist, Nasrin is a stern critic of the role of religion in the oppression ofthe women and the poor. She has worked as a physician in Bangladesh before her exile inEurope and the US since 1994.Despite the efforts of the Bangladeshi state to suppress her works on the charges ofreligious offensiveness, immorality and expression of sexuality, Taslima has created aspace for herself in Bangladesh‘s literary and public sphere. Her writings unsettles theissues of minority and of women and/in religion and bring to the forefront the issue ofliterature and its uneasy negotiation with state politics in the postcolonial state. Her novelLajja (1993), a harsh critique of Islamic politics, was the first novel to document minorityrepression in Bangladesh literature. Her Selected Columns or Nirbachita Kalam(1993)created waves in Bangladesh when first published. Along with Nashto Meyer NashtoGadya(1993) (Fallen Woman‘s Fallen Prose), the two volumes have created a significantniche for Taslima among South Asian feminist writers. Nirbachita Kalam was awardedthe Ananda Puruskar, one of the most prestigious of West Bengal‘s literary awards.Taslima says: ―My columns had created a storm inside offices, outside in the Press Club,‘Crossing thresholds: Radical notes in women’s writings from contemporary South Asia,’Madhu SinghJPCS Vol 2 No 4, December 201197