Kolkata, July 31 -- Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen returned to Kolkata on Friday after nearly 19 years, describing the visit as an emotional homecoming to a city she still considers her own.
Arriving at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Nasreen greeted those waiting to receive her with folded hands and said, "I am feeling very good to be back."
Her return marks her first visit to the city since November 2007, when she left following violent protests over her writings.
On Saturday, she will make her first public appearance at an anti-fundamentalism literary programme at Rabindra Sadan, where she is expected to recite poetry. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and noted author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay are among those expected to attend.
Nasreen also thanked the organisers and the present West Bengal government for facilitating her visit and providing security, while asserting that a writer's freedom should remain a fundamental right irrespective of the ideology of the government in power.
After fleeing Bangladesh in 1994 following death threats over her novel Lajja, Nasreen settled in Kolkata in 2004. She left the city in 2007 after protests over her memoir Dwikhandito.
The BJP has described her return as a reaffirmation of free speech, while previous Left Front and Trinamool Congress governments had maintained that the decision requiring her to leave was taken to preserve public order amid escalating communal tensions.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.