GagWatch

The Times (via) reports that feminist author, Taslima Nasreen is to rewrite her autobiography after she was forced to flee from Muslim extremists who placed a bounty on her head. She said on Friday that she hoped the move would appease fundamentalist groups and end a controversy that forced her to leave Calcutta last week.

“The book was written in 2002, based on my memories of Bangladesh in the 1980s, during which time secularism was removed from the Bangladesh constitution. I wrote the book in support of the people who defended secular values. I had no intention to hurt anybody’s sentiment,” she said today from a secret location.

“I have done what I have never done in my life. I have compromised even in a secular India.” She added that she hoped she would now be able to “live peacefully” in India.

Prashant Mukherjee, her publisher in Calcutta, refused to divulge the exact text that had been deemed offensive by Muslim fundamentalists, but indicated that two paragraphs would be deleted.

Ms Nasreen, who describes herself as a “secular humanist”, fled her homeland of Bangladesh in 1994. Her other works, including the 1994 novel Lajja (Shame), have provoked extremists to call for her execution for blasphemy.

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