[Reader-list] Taslima and not-so-mad days

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

Reading Shuddha's text on Taslima and parallels to pagli pishi in
every family, I was reminded of Taslima's not-so-mad days.  Isolation
from her original inspiration in the creative ferment of Bangladesh, a
life as a shut-in floater in European capitals (from one PEN dinner to
another, until suddenly abruptly those dried up) has resulted in a
shrinking of Taslima's intellectual space and thinking.  When  she
talks/writes now, delivering ad hominem attacks on "mullahs", her
analysis is crude and tone deaf enough that it's embarrassing to
watch.  She also seems noticably disconnected from broader political
movements even in her immediate surroundings (e.g., Nandigram)-- but
perhaps this is the price tag for her continued tenuous existence in
India (as a "guest" at her majesty's pleasure).

An unproductive exile.

I remember a different Taslima. The one that exploded onto the Dhaka
scene in late 1980s.  Long before LAJJA, before KA, before AMARE
MEYEBELA, before DIKHWANDITO (all books the world discovered after
exile), there were the weekly column she used to write for a purely
Bangladeshi audience.  It's interesting to note that even the wiki
entry on her starts her list of achievements with her 1992 Ananda
Puroshkar, i.e., with her discovery by the intelligentsia (which ended
up being the beginning of her downfall-- the seduction of the Indian
literary circuit, which used her and then disposed of her).  But there
is a different Taslima, from a period when there was no fame, but
there was a lot of earnest and meaningful feminist writing/activism

The topics she wrote about in late 80s seem like Feminism 1.0 now, but
at that time she was like a molotov cocktail into the complacency of
Bangla mucholman bhodrolok society.

February is the month of language martyrs (also recognized by UN as
"Mother Tongue Day", in recognition of the anti-Pakistan movement that
began in Bangladesh/East Pakistan on Feb 21, 1952 with the killing of
protesters fighting against the imposition of Urdu as state language
of all of Pakistan). It all culminates on February 21st.  The boi
mela/book fair that runs all month in Bangla Academy is a unifying
cultural phenomenon that brings in a gigantic middle and lower income
group to buy books. Today's newspaper carries a picture of a 3 year
old kidney damage patient who is being carried by his father to boi
mela to get a glimpse at the crowds.

Within that extremely sacrosanct hallowed space, Taslima was the first
to write in 1989/90 about how the narrow confines and massive crowds
of boi mela had given cover to groups of eve teasers.  In angry,
clean, precise Bangla (something she has lost over the years), she
described which line, which area, which body part, which finger, where
when how-- the mathematics of nasty invasive groping.  Through that
campaign of writing she actually managed to inspire a group of
activists who formed human chains at boi mela (this is all long
forgotten).  Angry confrontational politics, all of which has
retreated in the face of more internecine warfare in the 00s. [Now
instead of the left against the islamist, the left against the
chauvinists, the secular left is battling the islamist left, all one
big hojoborolo.]

It all seems tremendously retro now, but in 1990/91, I could feel my
head exploding as I read her angry columns, week after week. That sort
of  in your face, f***-the-patriarchy brand of feminism was still raw.
Eve teasing goon squads, lit cigarettes flitting into hooded rickshas,
why women had to ride motorcycles side saddle, the old uncle molesting
his young ward, the filth being taught in schools, the hypocrisy of
the prostitute frequenting middle class, the sniffing dogs of
propriety (kukur er naam syphilis), Biman Airlines discrimination
against older stewardesses-- these were all targets of her early
broadsides. Writing about wanting a room of one's own, many of us
learnt about Virginia Woolf via the Bangla translations she did in her
column (as well as Humayun Azad's NAARI, also banned by GOB).
Essential work in a xerox world before wiki/google/internet.

Of course there is much to criticize of Taslima as well. The way she
allowed herself to be used post 1992, and especially the BJPs' embrace
of LAJJA, which she failed to distance herself from. The arrogant
perch from which she said "there were no proper feminists before me in
Bangladesh" (but perhaps isolation led to delusions).  Etc, etc these
are all tired, shopworn, well-read.

But the ultimate treason was of the Bangla middle class, the secular
intelligentsia, the left, the group that failed.  When a national
campaign by the mullahs peaked and Taslima went into hiding and
eventually into exile, it is the secular left that failed. That
decided through a complicated set of equations that it was better not
to fall on the sword of Taslima.

Compared to that pioneering role, her writing and public posture now
is frozen in time. Tremendously stilted, stale ideas.  For this I
blame above everything else the complete isolation she has fallen into
in exile. Cut off from meaningful challenge, and isolated from the
debates that are going on inside Bangladesh now (which have advanced
many aeons since her time as an angry radical) she is the sad lioness
in winter.

At the time of Taslima fires, wall graffiti went up with Niemoller's
line "First they came for...". The last line there was "Today they
come for Taslima..."  Soon, those grafs were painted over with much
bigger slogans in cherry red "Taslima r chamra/Tule Nibo Amra"
(Taslima's Skin/We Will Take It Off). Perhaps they meant clothes, not
skin. At any rate, in the face of that righteous anger, the genteel
secularists beat a hasty retreat. There's was always a politics of
fool'er wreath, Tagore songs, Harmonium (what my friend calls pen
penani politics), human chain, etc. Faced with angry mobs and big
sticks, they meakly bleated and retreated. Hell with taslima anyway
they said, how dare she say she was the first feminist. Ok, our
conscience was soothed, we never liked her anyway.

Taslima was the first big victory for the Islamists in two decades.
Many more followed. There is Arifur Rahman, blasphemous cartoonist,
still in jail (three months running). Daud Haider, blasphemous poet,
still in exile in Berlin (with his books freshly banned by Home
Ministry this year-- for writing the Mecca Kaba-Lucknow Baiji line).
Humayun Azad, blasphemous professor, hacked with a machette right
outside this very same February Boi Mela (died six months later in
Berlin). There was that issue of Shaptahik 2000, banned. Humor
magazine Alpin, banned. Prothom Alo newspaper, almost burnt to the
ground.  Many more such cases. And more to add.

There is a way she ignited passions inside Bangladesh, and for that
role as a provocateur, she was priceless, unique, and necessary. A
crucible for so much anger. How tragic to see that today the voices
defending her are inside India, and not in Bangladesh.

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Note: Chronology of Blasphemy Cases
http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/chronology-of-major-blasphemy-cases-in-bangladesh-1972-2007/

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Naeem Mohaiemen
skype: naeembangali
+88 01711 548 770 [Dhaka]

http://www.shobak.org
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