TASLIMA NASREEN

A PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A WOMAN

- Nidhi Verma

As one reads James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the emancipation of the artist from the ideological clutches of society feels like an empowering liberation for the reader as well. I felt a similar surge of inspiration and awe through my interview with eminent writer, Taslima Nasreen. Her story is testament to why the written word is revolutionary. Even after her novel Lajja (Shame), led to her suffering a number of physical and other attacks — and eventual exile — for her critical scrutiny of Islam and her demand for women’s equality, Taslima never stopped fighting for justice through her writing.

With the English translation of her sequel to Lajja called Shameless released recently, readers will see her unabashed and subversive writing come to life once again. Her narrative, explores the lives of the protagonists of Lajja after they flee from Bangladesh to India, in hope of a better life and slowly gets subsumed by Taslima’s feminism.

What is your first memory of writing?

My first memory is that of writing poems. The title of my first poem, as far as I remember, was