Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: Taslima is offered a haven in Uppsala

Taslima is offered a haven in Uppsala
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NewsByte on 02 June, 2008 02:59:22
 
Stockholm, June 2: Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen has arrived in
Sweden where she has been offered safe haven, the Upsala Nya Tidning newspaper
reported on Monday.
The city council of the university city of Uppsala, north of Stockholm will pay
Nasreen a monthly stipend of 5,000 kronor ($833) and pay for her accommodation
during a two-year period, the report said.
It is the second time Nasreen will live in Sweden. In 1994 she was forced to
leave Bangladesh after Islamic fundamentalist groups in her native country
issued a fatwa and placed a bounty on her head over the content in her writings
including the novel Lajja (Shame). Nasreen, who is also a trained doctor, lived
for more than a decade in Europe and the United States. She later lived in
Kolkata, but last year was forced to leave West Bengal’s state capital after
violent protests by Muslim fundamentalist groups who said her writings were
offensive to Islam. —DPA