''Religion convinced the world that there's an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there's 10 things he doesn't want you to do or else you'll go to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you!” by George Carlin. One could be forgiven for thinking that the only people whose freedom of expression the state is willing to protect are those who resort to violence in the name of religion - Hindu, Muslim or Christian. That’s what happened in progressive Kerala when Mary Roy tried to stage 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' at her school. Or when cinema halls screened The Da Vinci Code. Indeed, not only does it protect their freedom of expression, it looks like it also protects their freedom to criminally assault and violate. Not a single perpetrator of such violence has been apprehended and punished in the last decade or more that has seen an alarming rise in such street or mob censorship. Not in the case of Deepa Mehta's film; not in the attack on Ajeet Cour's Academy of Fine Arts in Delhi; not in M .F. Husain's case; not in the violation of the Bhandarkar Institute; not at MS University in Baroda; not in the assault on Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad this August.
During the Christian ages, the church has not alone shown cruelty and contempt for women, but has exhibited an impious and insolent disregard of her most common rights of humanity. It has robbed her of her responsibility, putting man in place of God. It has forbidden her the office of the church….it has denied her independent thought, declaring her a secondary creation for men’s use…. It has anathematized her sex, teaching her to feel shame for the very fact of her being (Women, Church and State)
Thus, the atrocities of the church are seen from the very foundation of the church walls. Religion being entirely Masculine is the false concept. It is very ambiguous that church is represented by ‘Father’ who holds the reins in his hands while the secondary position is given to a women the church address them as ‘Sister’. This derogatory status makes it supposable that even the radical church offers no value or less value to women in the name of religion. Daly’s ultimate perception in Beyond God the father is of a redemptive sisterhood which ‘ through its iconoclastic refusal of the falsities of patriarchy, will mean a “ Second Coming ” not of Christ “ but a new arrival of female presence … enchained since the dawn of patriarchy. It is very amusing and at the same times a very feminine and discreet way of doing it when Maya sees religion as a way of evading death. It is here that the women is turning helpless for another women. The indoctrination of the religious ethics possess her so much that the long maintained relationship is thrashed for it.
Maya remained unmoved, ‘la Iilaha Illalaha Muhammadun Rasulullah is all that you need to say to become a Muslim. That’s just what I’ll do , and I’ll call myself Feroza Begum. Maya glared at her mother, as if to say there was nothing wrong about her proposed course of action. She seemed unmoved by the sadness in Kironmoyee’s face.
The another character who is victimized is Praveen, who later takes on the new identity given by her father (patriarch). But we cannot sympathize with her as she makes no attempt to confront the patriarch. She waits for Suranjan to give his decision , rather than giving her opinion.
He had been set to marry Praveen, but the marriage had not taken place when he had refused to comply with Praveen’s demand to convert to Islam. He said it was not necessary for either of them to convert. In addition to this hurdle, Praveen’s family had not approved of her Hindu suitor; they had finally married their daughter off to a Muslim businessman. She had cried her heart out in protest, but had eventually acquiesced in her family’s wishes.
Subsequent to the publication of Lajja, Nasrin sustained a number of physical and other attacks. In October 1993, an Islamic fundamentalist group called the Council of Islamic Soldiers offered a reward for her death. In May 1994 she was interviewed by the Kolkata edition of The Statesman, which quoted her as asking for a revision of the Quran; hover she claims that she had only called for revision of the Sharia, the Islamic religious law. In August 1994 she was brought up on " charges of making inflammatory statements," and faced death threats from Islamic fundamentalists. A hundred thousand demonstrators called her " an apostate appointed by imperial forces to defame Islam"; a "militant faction threatened to loose thousands of poisonous snakes in the capital unless she was executed." After spending two months in hiding, at the end of 1994 she escaped to Sweden. One of the results of her exile was that she did not get to practice medicine anymore; she became a full-time writer and activist. The rage and the fury turned against her by her furious critics reminds one of a similar distasteful directed against the radical poet in the twenties. More than half a century separates the two, but the society, despite some advance of the status of women, has not changed much. The forces opposed to change and progress, far from yielding the ground, have still kept their stronghold secure against progress; have in fact gained in striking por. While Nazrul never had to flee his country, Nasrin was forced to do so. In an interview she very sadly confessed that It was very difficult to criticize Islam in a Muslim country. Of course, I don’t just criticize Islam, I criticize all religions . But when I criticized Christianity, Judaism or Hinduism for oppression of women, I had no problem; nobody came to kill me. When I criticized Islam, they issued fatwas and put a price on my head. And the government threw me out. The most shocking thing that happened during Hyderabad conference was when the mob attacked her there re members of parliament present but nobody was punished . They said: “ are sad couldn’t kill her today, but next time will kill her.” That was broadcast and no one was punished for that. In politics, recently all political parties have promised to reserve 33% of legislative seats for women in their manifesto, but this has not been passed into law as the male-dominated parties oppose the bill.
Taslima Nasreen is targeted just because she is bold enough to reject the typical stereotypes of the religion and also through her medium she makes the entire women race to identify with their particular religion and come to terms with the morals if they apply to women liberation and gives them freedom of thought .
Thus concluding feminism by saying that Taslima Nasreen’ literary work creates a fissure in the episteme of patriarchal power - knowledge nexus, and opens up a space for the expression of female individual but have failed to take advantage of that space because the patriarchal media and literary circle have scandalized Taslima Nasrin to an extent that do not even stop give her a second thought. It is very factual that women are compelled to breakthrough their bondages and when they try to do it they hunted down by calling them witches. The bizarre expurgation of her writings are difficult to digest.
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