Why Taslima Nasrin is so controversial?
Sharin Shajahan Naomi, Department of Law, DU
"Amar Meybella," "Lajja," "Utal Hawa," and at last "Ka" -- it is Taslima who has written so many controversial books in Bangladesh and has given so many people a chance to write something against her. Now the question is why Taslima is being so criticised? Mostly because she has depicted incidents of sexual intercourse in her latest book so vulgarly that we think that it can destroy our moral values. If it is so, then why we don't criticise Humayan Azad and other male writers whose books also have unnecessary descriptions of sexual intercourse? And to some extent those descriptions are more vulgar and more rude than Taslima's. Another allegation is that she has degraded our honourable intellectuals. If it is so, then where were these people who are now crying over the intellectuals' honour and intellectuality when Humayan Azad degraded Rabindranath Tagore and Rousseau in his books? Another point is that has been raised is why Taslima has revealed her experiences of sexual harassment at the hands of some male intellectuals? Because it should be. Any girl can be sexually humiliated any time by any male whatever he may be an intellectual in favour of the liberation or a fundamentalist. It is the duty of the victim to reveal it so that there may not be another victim. But girls of this country are taught to conceal all the sexual tortures of the males so that those males can get another chance to commit the heinous crime again. Taslima has broken this tradition -- that's why she is so controversial and being perceived as a pervert in the eyes of our male dominated society and unfortunately in the eyes of our females too.
|
Photo: AFP |