Internationally known and widely travelled, Taslima Nasreen was born in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. After studying medicine, she worked as a gynaecologist and anaesthesiologist in hospitals in Dhaka. During her medical studies she gained prominence as a strongly feminist columnist and also began to publish poetry and fiction. Her novel shame was banned in 1993, on the ground that its ‘inflammatory’ tone excited tensions between Muslims and Hindus. In 1994, the European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. Conservative elements in Bangladesh demanded her execution some years back for blasphemy. Nasreen secretly left Bangladesh and took asylum in Sweden. On 16 November 2004 she received the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) tolerance and non-violence award – the UNESCO Mandajeet Singh Prize. Currently, she is doing research in the USA.
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