KOLKATA, July 31: Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin has said that India is now her home and that she may never return to Bangladesh, expressing little hope of going back to her birthplace during her lifetime.
Speaking to India Today ahead of a literary event in Kolkata, Nasrin said she believes returning to Bangladesh is “almost impossible” and described any future return as nothing short of a miracle.
I don’t think I will ever be able to return to my home in Bangladesh. If it happens in my lifetime, it would be a miracle,” she said. “Kolkata is my home, and I am very happy to be back in this part of Bengal.”
Nasrin first took refuge in Kolkata after leaving Bangladesh in 1994. However, following protests over her autobiography Dwikhandito, she was forced to leave the city in 2007 and later settled in New Delhi.
The author returned to Kolkata on Friday for the first time in 19 years to attend a literary programme.
She also thanked India’s BJP-led government for allowing her to visit Kolkata again.
“I want to thank the government from the bottom of my heart. The doors of Kolkata, which had once been closed to me, have finally opened. I hope they remain open so that I can come here whenever I wish and breathe the free air of Bengal,” she said.
Nasrin further alleged that despite efforts to return during the Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee after 2011, she was not permitted to do so.
Taslima Nasrin has lived in exile since leaving Bangladesh in 1994 following controversy surrounding her writings on religion and women’s rights.
