Taslima Nasrin speaks on citizenship

WRITE OR WRONG? Taslima Nasrin makes no bones about admitting her rebellious nature.

        

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Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to Devil’s Advocate. As the Indian Government takes its time responding to Taslima Nasrin’s application for citizenship how does she respond to her critics? Those are the two issues I shall tackle today in an interview with Taslima Nasrin. Ms Nasrin you recently said ‘I would like to be known more as an activist who can influence society than as a writer. Are trying to change the world’.

Taslima Nasrin: Yes. I have a dream, I dream of a beautiful world where no women will be oppressed.

Karan Thapar: You have also said something else which I find very perplexing. You said ‘if you want to be a human being, a good person you have to first be bad in this society.’ Are you suggesting that good people defy society they defy its values and its conventions and therefore they are considered bad.

Taslima Nasrin: Yes, I think so.

Karan Thapar: And are you a bad person in that sense.

Taslima Nasrin: Yes.

Karan Thapar: You defy society.

Taslima Nasrin: Yes.

Karan Thapar: And you defy its conventions.

Taslima Nasrin: Yes.

Karan Thapar: And you enjoy doing so.

Taslima Nasrin: Yes.

Karan Thapar: Your critics say that this is just posturing. They say Taslima Nasrin says things, she does things, she adopts positions to attract attention and give herself publicity.

Taslima Nasrin: No it’s not true.

Karan Thapar: Are your critics being unfair?

Taslima Nasrin: Yes.

Karan Thapar: Let's begin by talking about some of the things you have said about Islam. You have said it’s not true that Islam is good for humanity its not all good. Islam completely denies human rights. And then later elsewhere you have written about what you called the ‘venomous snake’ of Islam. How do you justify these extreme views?

Taslima Nasrin: You know if any religion keeps people in ignorance, if any religion allows the people to persecute other people of different faith and if any religion keeps women in slavery then I can't accept that religion.

Karan Thapar: You are saying Islam does all of that.

Taslima Nasrin: Yes.

Karan Thapar: But the truth Taslima Nasrin is that all over the world Islam is recognised as a religion that perhaps has done more for women’s rights than any other in the area of education, inheritance even giving them a legal identity in their marriage.

Taslima Nasrin: No it’s not true. There is no equality between man and women in marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance under Islam.

Karan Thapar: In Islam for instance just to take inheritance women have a right to inherit, it’s an inalienable right. Again in Islam, a women in a marriage is a legal entity of her own. The marriage itself is not just a sacrament it’s a contract.

Taslima Nasrin: Yes but women do not get equality. Women get half of the property than their brothers get.

Karan Thapar: Can I put something to you? As someone who is born as Muslim you know that the fault really lies in the way Islam is interpreted or the way Islam is enforced. But by blaming Islam itself, which is what you are doing, aren’t you pandering to the Western world’s present prejudice with Islam.

Taslima Nasrin: Of course not. I criticise Islam and also I criticise Christianity, Judaism I criticise Hinduism because women are oppressed by old religions. Old religions are anti-women. Religions were made for men and men made religions for there own fun, for there own interest.

Karan Thapar: So you are the enemy of all religions?