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It was an emotional homecoming for the exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen to Kolkata after 19 years, a city she still considers her own. It is her first visit to Kolkata since November 2007, when she was forced to leave the city following violent protests over her writings. The departure ended what she had often described as the closest thing to home after her exile from Bangladesh. “I feel as though I am returning to my own country. Bengal has never been divided in my heart by a border or a barbed-wire fence. The door to the eastern part of Bengal remains closed to me, so for now, this part of Bengal is my home,” she said.
Returning “with joy, but also with pain”, Nasreen recalled that Kolkata had given her a home, friends, readers and a sense of belonging before she was compelled to leave. Describing the visit as more than a personal homecoming, she said it symbolised the return of a voice that religious fundamentalists had once sought to silence.
My comments abt madrasas were entirely abt madrasas in B’desh. I’ve no knowledge of the realities of madrasas in India,therefore I made no comments whatsoever abt them. Some media outlets r portraying my clear statement as if it wre directed at madrasas in India,whch is incorrect
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) August 5, 2026
I said that the student movement in India reminded me of Bangladesh’s July 2024 movement—and that the outcome of that movement was disastrous. Immediately, some people reprimanded me, saying that, as a foreign citizen, I had no right to comment on India’s internal affairs.
Who…
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) July 24, 2026
The Bangladeshi author has lived in exile since the 1990s. She faced protests in Bangladesh and received threats from Islamist groups for her outspoken writings on women’s rights and religious extremism. Her criticism of Islamic fundamentalism has attracted both support and criticism. After fleeing Bangladesh in 1994 following death threats over her novel Lajja, she settled in Kolkata in 2004, embracing the Bengali-speaking city as a cultural refuge in exile. That association ended abruptly in November 2007 after violent protests erupted over portions of her memoir Dwikhandito, which had been banned by the then Left Front government in 2003 for allegedly hurting the sentiments of sections of the Muslim community. As the protests intensified, the Army was deployed to restore order in parts of Kolkata, the then Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government asked Nasreen rto leave the city. She was then moved to Jaipur and later to Delhi before eventually relocating abroad.
Lajja remains one of the author’s most widely read and controversial works and has elicited varied responses across the world. Nasrin adds, “Without separating State and religion, no State or society has ever become modern. Freedom of speech and expression must include the right to differ, to offend as well as to praise, a truth that many people in many countries neither know nor accept. Without the right to offend, freedom of expression cannot exist. And without freedom of expression, democracy will not work.”
Her return to Kolkata had also rekindled debate over freedom of expression, secularism and the state’s handling of religious sensitivities. Only time will tell how much the society has evolved to embrace such thoughts.
