To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 7:05 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 11:43 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
From: Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com>
To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 6:30 PM
Subject: RE: [mukto-mona] FW: Rushdie cancels visit, angry authors read Satanic Verses
But in 1993, when confronted by the fundamentalists, I was shocked by the way she just chickened out. Her cowardice was visible in her body language (coy looks and min-min voice) and the stupidity of repeating over and over again the same dumb, unexamined Bangla translations of the Qur'an and calling them "religion" was simply stupefying! How can anybody be so scared to lose basic cultural sense, or an idea of what political game was being played? Her narcissism was then as now is too blatant.
She did more harm to women's ongoing movements in Bangladesh by emboldening the Jamaati factions. Almost every woman activist I've met in the field says so. Today there are more hijabized women in BD than they were in 1993 and Taslima's fiasco in 1993 is partly to blame.
As an old communalism combatant I can tell you that Taslima is just another rotten piece of wooden chip in the fire of communalism. I work with a team of communalism combatants and none of us singles out a particular religion and attacks it indiscriminately. Even the die-hard atheists and religion-haters amongst us has learned (the hard way) not to pick on "religion" as the root cause of communalism despite the fact that religion is the main vehicle of their hate-mongering machine.
Her novelette 'Lajja' is a badly written account of Hindu persecution in Bangladesh in the sense that its central message is a cowardly whimper (the Hindu hero managing to slap a Muslim street prostitute as his climactic act of protest!). Had Taslima really cared about humanity the message could have been bolder in that novel, and more politically or even artistically meaningful in sensitizing us about the root causes of communalism.
Just as I, a Muslim, would not go on and on about the flaw in Hinduism regarding its caste system, my Hindu or Christian team-mates are discouraged from talking about 'jehadism' as a part of Islam and as if every ordinary Indian or Bangladeshi Muslim lives by it.
Combating communalism and religious fundamentalism is not as easy as it seems superficially. It is a rough ride and it gets rougher the more deeply you get involved. It requires a thorough knowledge and understanding of our subcontinental history and culture.
Taslima has done well with her narcissism, and I applaud her. But please do not call her a "champion" on women's issues or a sincere anti-communal activist. She is a sneaky, manipulative coward, the opposite of 'brave'.
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