Taslima Nasrin: It is easy to give death sentence. But harder to improve the condition of women and the mentality of men

Life felt like a feather at one moment and heavy as a stone the very next… it was mine, yet it was not…” That verse by Taslima Nasrin more or less captures her life, as one wonders how she survives with grace and fortitude despite being a writer on exile. There is a van full of police near her car, there are men dressed in black ensuring her safety. Her eyes, even when she smiles, betray a tinge of fear, as her readers come to her with questions. Still she speaks, smiles, laughs and answers with an unending passion for life.In Kochi to promote her new book, the controversial Bangladeshi writer tells us, “The violent masculinity along with victim blaming is the root cause of rape culture. Even though we keep on saying one should not blame the victim and praise violent masculinity, it continues. It is toxic. But at the same time death penalty isn’t the solution for rape culture. We must educate men to consider women equal to them. We should create a society where men and women are treated as equal human beings,” she says.After she published her maiden book, Taslima was forced to leave Bangladesh in 1994. She switched homes from New York, Sweden and the UK and later started considering India as her home. However, she says, every time she writes something ‘unacceptable’, it is a shock to be told to go back to her country by people around her. “That is when I realise that it is not my country. I keep hearing from fanatics and even civilised people – Go back. I do not want to go back because I have no country, I have no home. My country is the ‘true-secularists’. Home is where I feel comfortable and they are the people who respect human beings and believe in human rights,” she says.She feels that the negative reactions might be stemming from the fact that she wrote about sexuality. “The male writers thought it is their forte and a woman cannot write on it. Only they can talk about women’s pleasure and pain. If I do it, it is obscenity. I think they feared that I might write about them too. So, they decided to throw me out and ban the book. But I still can write about them wherever I stay,” she says.“It is a great inspiration when I hear my Malayali readers say that they like my book,” says Taslima, as she sits down with Kochi Times to share her views on a range of topics.Kerala was once a matriarchal society, yet…I wouldn’t say that Kerala was a matriarchal society. According to anthropologists, there is no matriarchal society in the world. The Nair society in Kerala was a kind of matrilineal or matrilocal society. Though the properties were in the women’s name, the control was completely in the hands of the men in the family — the brothers. So, it’s not hundred percent matriarchal. However, back then, women had their say in their sexuality. But it was there across the world. Once upon a time, there was swayamvaram. In Arab countries, during pre-Islam period, women had the right to choose their husband. Not just Islam, the same was true of Christianity too.After religion started ruling supreme, everywhere women became oppressed. It is because of religion, misogyny and patriarchal system. Even in Iran, women were warriors but now women are not allowed to go out without hijab. They have now started burning it, but I don’t think that regime will allow women to be free. When I was young, I never saw so many women wearing hijab but now almost everyone does. I feel people are going backwards. We are going back and forth like a pendulum.After Nirbhaya, many rape cases followed and we now have an eight-year-old. Do you think things will ever change? Whenever we thought the situation had improved, things went bad again. But we have progressed a lot. There was a time when women had no right to go to school or to take up a job or to do what they loved to do. But nowadays, things have changed. We have much more freedom than our great grandmothers. Good times will come, and good sense will prevail. We must continue the struggle and not remain silent. This time, the government thought of acting only because people protested.There were times when we thought rape is not a crime. Women used to be ashamed to say it aloud. They never went to report it or speak out. Nowadays, more and more women are coming out.Recently, a controversial Telugu actress came out and spoke about casting couch.She did a very good thing. So many women in film industry are victims of casting couch but nobody dared to protest. At least she did that, and she was harassed. This happens in Bollywood, Tollywood, Mollywood and in other industries as well. I believe women should come out and protest.In fact, I heard that in Kerala, an actress spoke against misogyny and was trashed and trolled left, right and centre. It is because we have a male dominated society. They do not allow their crime to be revealed. Women should continue to fight.In Kerala, we had Madhavikutty, a daring feminist writer.Yes, I have met her and also read her. I like her writings a lot. But what I did not like was that once, she told me that she realised that she made a mistake by converting to Islam. But she was afraid to go back as she feared for her life, and that of her children’s and grandchildren’s. Then I told the media afterwards that she should be given police protection and allowed to live her life the way she wanted to and follow whichever religion she wished to follow. But she denied that she said that to me. Maybe she was scared.Anyway, what she did in her life was amazing. Feminist writers struggle a lot. It is not very easy for them to pen down their thoughts and be respected because we all know that men hate feminism. They call you feminazi or feminichi and so on. This is bad. They want to dominate. They do not want any equality. If women achieve their rights, men will benefit the most. Because they will share the burden of the family with the husbands and they will live with equal partners and lead a more dignified life.Why do men fear the word feminism?Many men are afraid of the word feminism and feminists because they think feminists would replace the men in power. Feminism is not at all that. It is just an idea on having equal rights and justice for women. It is only about sharing the world equally. Because we are in a patriarchal society, men think that they will become like women, if feminism is allowed. They think that feminists will torture them and give back everything women had suffered for centuries. It is not like that at all.You apparently had a crush on Amitabh Bachchan and used to imagine yourself as Rekha.I like Rekha and Amitabh. During adolescence, back in the 80s, I loved seeing Amitabh films. But afterwards, I moved away from those to art films and world classics.What is your reaction to the rape of a child in Kathua?It is very sad how people can rape and murder a little girl. I have seen people associating rape with what women wear but when an eight-year-old girl or a four-year-old girl gets raped, it proves that clothing isn’t the reason for rape but the misogyny – the violent masculinity. Good that so many people protested that heinous crime. A new law is being created and it is good that people are very conscious. But I think granting death penalty is a very easy thing to do. Otherwise, the government will have to do a lot of hard work to improve the situation – to improve the condition of women, to change the mentality of men, to educate men and women on human rights. Remember women are not inferior beings but equal. If people have learnt any bad thing, they should unlearn. Thus, we can have a society sans rapists, murderers and criminals. Death penalty doesn’t deter crimes. In Northern European countries, crime rates are very low. They do not have death penalties. It is good to have correctional centres.