‘India is my second home’: Author Taslima Nasreen makes heartfelt appeal to Amit Shah, requests to ‘let her stay’

Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Monday made a public appeal to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to allow her to continue living in the country, which has been her second home for the last twenty years, adding that the controversial author said she lives in India because she loves this great country.

Taking to microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter), the Bangladeshi writer known for her writing on women's oppression and criticism of religion, wrote a heartfelt message tagging to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, "@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.🙏” 

Nasreen, a vocal critic of religious extremism and an advocate for women's rights, has been living in exile since 1994, following multiple fatwas from Islamist fundamentalists in Bangladesh due to her controversial writings.

The controversial Bangladeshi author gained global attention by the beginning of 1990s owing to her essays and novels with feminist views and criticism of what she characterizes as all "misogynistic" religions.

Her novel Lajja (1993) and her autobiography Amar Meyebela (1998)—which highlight gender inequality and slammed communalism—have been banned in Bangladesh.

Lajja was written about the violence, rape, looting and killings of Bengali Hindus that took place in December 1992 after the destruction of Babri Masjid. It was banned in Bangladesh but became a bestseller in the rest of the world.

After her exile from Bangladesh in 1994, Nasrin spent the 10 years in Sweden, Germany, France and the US. She returned to Kolkata in 2004, where she lived until 2007.

She was forced to leave West Bengal in November 2007, then she moved to Delhi and lived under house arrest for three months. She left India in 2008 but later returned there from the United States.