Bhubaneswar: Eminent author and activist Taslima Nasrin on Tuesday said there is a need to separate the state from religion if true equality is to be achieved for women.
“Laws are to be based on equality and human rights, not religious doctrines which restrict their rights,” Nasrin said while delivering the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Lecture at the SOA Deemed to be University in Bhubaneswar.
Nasrin, a Gynaecologist by profession and a Bangladeshi writer who was expelled from her country for her writings and views, said she had been continuing her struggle for restoration of human dignity and equality for women and would not retreat.
“Bangladesh expelled me, West Bengal, where I lived, expelled me. I have no home. I have no country. But I believe in freedom of expression and feel women must resist religious tyranny,” she told the packed auditorium.
Nasrin, whose books ‘Lajja’ and ‘Dwikhandita’ brought her to limelight, argued that rigid interpretations of religion were anti-woman. Religious influence in governance, she said, had a negative impact on women across all communities.
The event was chaired by Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of SOA while Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare) conducted the proceedings.
Delving into her past, she said she was born in a secular muslim family in Mymensingh in Bangladesh. Her father, a doctor, encouraged her to study and become a doctor.
“I grew up in a home rich with literature and music. But when I reached the age of 12, I realized that I was an atheist and questioned the religious texts as I found women being oppressed through religion, culture, customs and tradition,” she said.
“It is every woman’s story. We are trapped in the same cage. We didn’t call it oppression, we called it tradition,” the author said adding there was need to unite to protect the rights of women.
Nasrin said as she grew she began to resist. “I wrote what I saw, what I lived, what I believed without compromise. I protested against injustice and demanded equality, freedom and truth through my essays, prose, poetry and novels which became weapons against oppression.”
“As a result, people demonstrated on the streets and demanded my death. The state did not protect me and I have since lived in exile for 31 years,” she said adding “I am a woman without a country.”
“My home today is not a country or a passport. It is the heart of every secularist, humanist and free thinker.”
Stating that the concept of feminism was not western, Dr. Nasrin said she was influenced by her own experience. “Where the state is secular, women have hope.”
“The conflict in the world is between two ideas, secularism and fundamentalism, rational logical thinking and irrational blind faith,” she said adding “I still believe that change is possible if we are brave enough to ask questions.”
She ended her lecture by reciting a poem written by her titled ‘The Deathless Girl’ to a thunderous applause.
