HVK Archives: Mother begs forgiveness for Tasleema - Radicals step up pressure
Mother begs forgiveness for Tasleema - Radicals step up pressure - The Telegraph
Farid Hossain
()
September 18, 1998
Title: Mother begs forgiveness for Tasleema - Radicals step up pressure
Author: Farid Hossain
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: September 18, 1998
Fragile, ailing and given only a few months to live by her
doctors, Tasleema Nasreen's mother sought forgiveness for her
daughter "if she has hurt anyone's religious sentiments".
Eid-ul-Ara Begum, 60, who is suffering from colon cancer,
returned from New York to Dhaka with her husband Rajab Ali and
Tasleema. "My daughter has promised me that she will never
write anything against Islam or any other religion," she told
The Telegraph from her bed in Tasleema's Shantinagar apartment
here.
"Doctors have given me only a few months. It is time my daughter
is forgiven if she has hurt anyone's religious sentiments. I
badly want to see her at my bedside during my last days," she
said, her wasting body racked by sobs.
Four years after she fled Bangladesh when former Prime Minister
Begum Khaleda Zia's government ordered her arrest on charges of
blasphemy, Tasleema slipped into Dhaka on Monday morning by a
Bangladesh Biman flight.
A family member, who refused either to be identified or divulge
her whereabouts, confirmed that she came back to Dhaka on
Monday. Police also confirmed her return.
As soon as news of her coming back from exile in Europe spread,
Islamic radicals, who had put a price of 50 lakh takas on her
head in 1994, stepped up their demand that she be arrested, put
on trial and sentenced to death. Tasleema has gone into hiding
since she landed in Dhaka.
Tasleema, author of the award-winning book Lajja, had the fatwa
issued against her when she was quoted saying the Quran should
be rewritten. Tasleema denied making the statement, but
maintained she favoured changes in Sharia, so that women are
treated at par with men.
The blasphemy case against Tasleema is still pending. But the
trial virtually came to a halt after Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina came to power in 1996. Hasina's government is now under
pressure from Islamic fundamentalists to have the trial
reopened.
On Tuesday, several hundred Islamic activists paraded on the
streets of Dhaka, chanting death threats at the author. Many
Islamic leaders and organisations issued statements calling for
her arrest.
Authorities are bracing for bigger protests on Friday when
Muslims congregate in mosques for Jumma prayers.
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