India Extends Taslima Nasreen’s Residence Permit After Appeal To Amit Shah (image-X/taslimanasreen)
The Indian government has extended the residence permit of exiled Bangladeshi author and activist Taslima Nasreen after she made a heartfelt public appeal to Union Minister Amit Shah requesting him to allow her to continue living in the country.
The Bangladeshi author has been living in India, her second home, as she calls it, for the last two decades. Nasreen has been in exile for three decades due to threats from Islamist radicals in Bangladesh, her home country.
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Following the extension of her residence permit, the author took to social media platform X to thank the Home Minister. “A world of thanks,” posted Nasreen on X with a string of folded-hand emojis.
. @AmitShah 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏A world of thanks. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) October 22, 2024
Previously, on Monday, Nasreen had taken to X with a frantic message. “Dear Amit Shah ji Namaskar. I live in India because I love this great country. It has been my second home for the last 20 years. But the Ministry of Home Affairs has not been extending my residence permit since July 22. I’m so worried. I would be so grateful to you if you let me stay. Warm regards,” she wrote.
.@AmitShah Dear AmitShahji 🙏Namaskar. I live in India because I love this great country. It has been my 2nd home for the last 20yrs. But MHA has not been extending my residence permit since July22. I’m so worried.I would be so grateful to you if you let me stay. Warm regards.🙏
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) October 21, 2024
The author-activist fled Bangladesh 20 years ago, seeking shelter in India, after a fatwa was issued against her in 1993 for her book titled Lajja (Shame), where she writes of the persecution of a Hindu family in the country, violence, rape, and the Babri Masjid demolition in India. The Bangladesh government banned some of her works, including Lajja and her autobiography Amar Meyebela (1998).
A vocal advocate for minority communities and women’s rights in Bangladesh, Nasreen was forced into exile and spent the next decade in Sweden, Germany, France, and the US.
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She has lived in Kolkata, but due to backlash from fundamentalist groups between 2004 and 2007, she was forced to leave. By 2017, Nasreen settled in New Delhi after spending some time in Jaipur. The author holds Swedish citizenship and has been granted a long-term residence permit in India. Since 2011, her long-term residence permit is renewed each year. In the past as well, the polarising figure has made similar appeals.
After Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power in Bangladesh this August, Nasreen accused the former Prime Minister of expelling her in 1999 to “please Islamists” and suggested that the same forces have now compelled Hasina to leave the country.
