In November 2004, Taslima Nasreen, famous Bangladeshi author and IHEU’s former representative at UNESCO in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Paris received the prestigious UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for Tolerance. Here is her acceptance speech, a resounding affirmation of her Humanism.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Bangladesh

Bangladesh, where I was born, is a nation of more than 130 million, one of the most populous countries in the world. More than 1000 people are crowded into a square kilometer of space. It is a country where 70 per cent of the people live below the poverty line, where more than half the population cannot read and write, a country where there is insufficient health care, and where infant mortality is high. Nearly 40 million women have no access to education nor do they have the possibility of becoming independent.

Because of the country's strong patriarchal tradition women suffer unbearable inequalities and injustices. They suffer from malnutrition and from anaemia as well as from the physical and psychological problems that are not treated. Because women are considered weak, their rights, their freedoms, their desires, their wishes, all are controlled by men. Women are considered inferior beings, servants and sexual objects. Women are considered intellectually, morally, physically, and psychologically inferior by religion, tradition, culture, and customs.

As a result, far too many women suffer from trafficking, from slavery, from all kinds of discrimination. Men throw acid on women’s bodies, burn their faces, smash their noses, melt their eyes, and walk away as happy men. Women are beaten, are flogged, are stoned to death. Women are raped, are accused of allowing the rape, and the rapists are set free. Violence against women is not considered a crime in my country.

Nobody told me to protest, but from an early age I developed strong feelings about the importance of fighting against oppression. Nobody asked me to shed a tear, but I did.

Writing against Oppression

By writing books, I wanted to do something constructive. I wrote about the need for women to understand why they are oppressed and why they should fight against their oppression. That did not make the religious fundamentalists happy. Quite the contrary! As a result, the fundamentalists refused to tolerate any of my views. They could not tolerate my saying that the religious scriptures are out of time and out of place. They were upset at my saying that religious law, which discriminates against women, needs to be replaced by secular law and a uniform civil code. Hundreds of thousands of extremists appeared on the streets and demanded my execution by hanging. A fatwa was issued against me, setting a price on my head. The government, instead of taking action against the fundamentalists, took action against me. I was charged with having hurt the religious feelings of the people. An arrest warrant was issued. But despite all the pressure, I continued writing. In my poetry, prose, essays and novels, I have defended the people who are oppressed. I have cried loudly for equality and justice, justice for all people whatever their religion and gender. I have spoken loudly for the separation of religion and state, for secular law, for secular education.

During my struggle for a secular and ethical humanism, I have tried to defend the poor and also the ethnic and religious minority communities that were being oppressed. It was impossible for me to accept the idea that people living miserable lives did so because they had a different faith, or spoke a different language, or had a different culture. I believe that the diversity of our world's many religions, languages, cultures and ethnicities is not a pretext for conflict, but is a treasure that enriches us all, there is no superior, no inferior

culture in this world, only various cultural patterns that make up our beautiful multicoloured mosaic.

But, humans should not allow oppression in the name of religion. Humans should not allow torture such as female genital mutilation in the name of custom or tradition. Humans should not allow barbarism, humiliation, inequality, or injustice in the name of culture. Culture should not be and must not be used against humanity.

Secularism vs. Fundamentalism

When I look around, I see the same picture everywhere: women are oppressed. Both the Judeo-Christian Bible and the Qur'an clearly accept and condone slavery. Jesus explicitly tells slaves to accept their roles and obey their masters. No one in this world today would defend chattel slavery in any public forum or allow it under any legal code. Neither fundamentalist Christians nor Orthodox Jews talk about animal sacrifice or slavery. In those countries in which Sharia or Islamic law exists, where stoning for adultery and amputation for stealing are legalized, no legitimization of slavery is ever mentioned. Polygamy and use of concubines are clearly accepted in the Old Testament, but nowhere in the Judeo-Christian world are either of these practices legalized. Thus, insistence of continuation of practices which denigrate, oppress, and suppress women under the guise of scriptural reference is a hoax. Such practices could and should be de-legitimized just as chattel slavery has been de-legitimized.

Humankind is facing an uncertain future. The probability of new kinds of rivalry and conflict looms large.

In particular, the conflict is between two different ideas, secularism and fundamentalism. I don't agree with those who think the conflict is between two religions, namely Christianity and Islam, or Judaism and Islam. After all there are fundamentalists in every religious community. I don't agree with those people who think that the crusades of the Middle Ages are going to be repeated soon. Nor do I think that this is a conflict between the East and the West. To me, this conflict is basically between modern, rational, logical thinking and irrational, blind faith. To me, this is a conflict between modernity and anti-modernism. While some strive to go forward, others strive to go backward. It is a conflict between the future and the past, between innovation and tradition, between those who value freedom and those who do not.

My Story is Your Story

In my memoir, what I have written is not just my life story. It is the same story that thousands of women know about, how women live in a patriarchal society that has hundreds of traditions that allow them to suffer. I have looked back into my childhood days and described the life of being a female child. I have told how I was brought up and have explained that I had privileges that many others did not have. I was able to study and become a medical doctor, something that thousands of girls cannot even dream about. I wanted to show where and how I grew up and what made me think differently, what made me do things differently. It is important to give other women some inspiration to revolt against the oppressive system that I grew up under and which still continues for them. I told the truth. I expressed everything that happened in my life. Normally it is taboo to reveal rape or attempted rape by male members of one's family. Girls shut their mouth because they are terribly ashamed. But I did not shut my mouth. I did not care what people would say to me or to my family. I know well that many women feel that I am telling their untold stories, too. We, the victims, should shout loudly. We need to be heard. We must protest loudly and demand our freedom and rights. We must refuse to be shackled, chained, beaten, and threatened.

If women do not fight to stop being oppressed by a shameful patriarchal and oppressive religious system, then shame on women! Shame on us for not protesting, for not fighting, for allowing a system to continue that will affect our children as well as our children's children.

My story is not a unique one. My experiences, unfortunately, have been shared by millions of fellow sufferers. In my books, I cried for myself. I also cried for all the others who have not been able to enjoy the productive life of which they are capable and which they most assuredly deserve. We who are women no longer must remain solitary, crying softly in lonely places. I do not cry alone anymore, and because of that I have been suffering. I was thrown out of my own country. Instead of being able to live in the area of the world in which I was born and brought up, I was given the alternative of living in the west where I am forced to feel like an outsider.

Humanism is my Home

I am, in other words, a stranger in my own country and a stranger here in the west where I am living now.

Where can I go? Nowhere. Exile, for me, is a bus stop where I am waiting for a bus to go home. I have been living in exile for more than 10 years. Still, I do not feel that any home is my home, any country my country. Mine is a hopeless, helpless feeling. Sometimes I ask myself, is this true, do I really have no home? Actually it's not true. I do have a home. My home is love, the love I receive from women all over the world. That is my home. The love I receive from rationalists, free thinkers, secularists, and humanists is my home. The love I receive from you is my home.

Today is the 16th of November, international day for Tolerance. The challenge is to make every day of the year a Tolerance Day. Tolerance is a concept that recognizes everyone's human right and everyone's fundamental freedom. People are naturally diverse, and should be, but only through tolerance can that diversity survive in the mixed communities of every region on the globe.

I am delighted, yet humbled, to be awarded the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize. I am grateful for the sympathy, support and solidarity that UNESCO has shown to me. This award, this recognition, has made me all the more committed and all the more determined to continue my struggle.

By Taslima Nasreen