Sweden invites Taslima to stay
Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen arrived in Sweden and has been offered a safe haven, the Upsala Nya Tidning newspaper reported on Monday.
Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen arrived in Sweden and has been offered a safe haven, the
Upsala Nya Tidning newspaper
reported on Monday.
The city council of the university city of Uppsala, north of Stockholm will pay Taslima a monthly stipend of 5,000 kronor ($833) and pay for her accommodation during a two-year period, the report said.
It is the second time Taslima will live in Sweden. In 1994 she was forced to leave Bangladesh after Islamic fundamentalists in her native country issued a fatwa and placed a bounty on her head over the content in her writings including the novel Lajja (Shame).
Taslima, 45, lived for more than a decade in Europe and the US. She later lived in Kolkata but was forced to leave West Bengal last year after violent protests by Muslim fundamentalists who said her writings were offensive to Islam. A doctor by training, she is reported to be in poor health and suffering from a heart problem.
Cecilia Wikstrom, a Liberal Party MP who urged politicians in her home town of Uppsala to fund the stipend, said Taslima was "a real fighter. You really have to admire her".