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Protect Taslima’s rights: scholars

LONDON: Leading South Asian scholars, including several from British universities, have condemned the attacks on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen and urged the Indian and Bangladesh governments to safeguard her right to free speech.

In a joint statement here, they questioned the claim of Ms. Nasreen’s detractors to speak for the Muslim community and warned that she should not be allowed to become a “pawn” in the stand-off between Hindu and Muslim “chauvinist forces”.

The statement, signed among others by Priyamvada Gopal (Cambridge), Rachel Dwyer (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) and Dwijen Rangnekar (Warwick University), said: “Freedom of speech, dissent and expression must be defended everywhere and at all times by those who are genuinely and consistently committed to these values.”

It also criticised the “hypocritical opportunism” of Hindu chauvinist groups, including the BJP, saying that they had themselves “participated vigorously” in attacking artists and film-makers such as M.F. Husain and Deepa Mehta. “Now, they are claiming to defend Ms. Nasreen against Islamists. We call on the Bangladeshi and Indian governments to safeguard Ms. Nasreen’s right to dignity and freedom of speech and to ensure that she does not become a pawn in an ugly stand-off between Hindu and Muslim chauvinist forces,” it added.

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