Editing Taslima Nasrin (section)

==Early life and career==
Nasrin is the daughter of Dr. Rajab Ali and Edul Ara, of [[Mymensingh]]. Her father was a physician, and a professor of Medical Jurisprudence in Mymensingh Medical College, as well as at [[Sir Salimullah Medical College]], Dhaka, and Dhaka Medical College. After completing high school in 1976 (SSC) and higher secondary studies in college ([[Higher Secondary (School) Certificate|HSC]]) in 1978, she studied medicine at [[Mymensingh Medical College]], an affiliated medical college of the [[University of Dhaka]], and graduated in 1984 with an [[MBBS]] degree.<ref name="scholarblogs">{{cite web |url=https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/11/nasrin-taslima/ |title=Taslima Nasrin |last=Devarajan |first=Arthi |date=Spring 1998 |website=Postcolonial Studies |publisher=Emory University |access-date=27 December 2015 |archive-date=2 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240602134537/https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/11/nasrin-taslima/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In college, she wrote and edited a poetry journal called ''Shenjuti''.<ref name="scholarblogs "/> After graduation, she worked at a family planning clinic in Mymensingh, then practised at the gynaecology department of Mitford hospital and at the anesthesia department of [[Dhaka Medical College]] hospital. While she studied and practised medicine, she saw girls who had been raped; she also heard women cry out in despair in the delivery room if their baby was a girl.<ref name="fume" /> Born into a [[Muslim]] family, she became an [[atheist]] over time.<ref>{{cite web |last=Nasreen |first=Taslima |title=For freedom of expression |publisher=[[UNESCO]] |date=12 November 1999 |url=http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/nasreen_121199.shtml |access-date=28 May 2009 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303235801/http://www.unesco.org/webworld/points_of_views/nasreen_121199.shtml}}</ref> In the course of writing, she took a feminist approach.<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Connor |first=Ashling |title=Feminist author rewrites novel after death threats from Muslim extremists |work=The Times |date=30 November 2007 |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2978120.ece |access-date=28 May 2009 |location=London |archive-date=15 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715234813/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2978120.ece }}</ref>

===Literary career===
Early in her literary career, Nasrin wrote mainly poetry, and published half a dozen collections of poetry between 1982 and 1993, often with female oppression as a theme, and often containing very graphic language.<ref name="fume"/> She started publishing prose in the late 1980s and produced three collections of essays and four novels before the publication of her documentary novel ''[[Lajja (novel)|Lajja]]'' ({{langx|bn|লজ্জা|lit=Shame|translit=Lôjja}}), in which a [[Hindu]] family was attacked by Muslim fanatics and decided to leave the country. Nasrin suffered a number of physical and other attacks for her critical scrutiny of Islam and her demands for women's equality. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets demanding her execution by hanging. In October 1993, a radical fundamentalist group called the Council of Islamic Soldiers offered a bounty for her death.<ref name="fume">{{cite news |last=Targett |first=Simon |author-link = Simon Targett|title=She who makes holy men fume |work=[[Times Higher Education]] |date=24 February 1995 |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=96825&sectioncode=26 |access-date=1 June 2009 |archive-date=3 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403011927/http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=96825&sectioncode=26 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Bangladesh: A group called the Sahaba Soldiers; the goals and activities of the group; treatment of those who hold progressive religious and social views by the Sahaba Soldier members (1990–2003) |publisher=[[United Nations High Commission for Refugees]] |date=29 July 2003 |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,QUERYRESPONSE,BGD,,3f7d4d5e7,0.html |access-date=1 June 2009 |archive-date=14 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014060725/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,QUERYRESPONSE,BGD,,3f7d4d5e7,0.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In May 1994, she was interviewed by the [[Kolkata]] edition of ''[[The Statesman (India)|The Statesman]]'', which quoted her as calling for a revision of the [[Quran]]; she claimed she only called for abolition of the [[Sharia]], the [[Islam]]ic [[religious law]].<ref name="britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Nasrin Sahak, Taslima: Bangladeshi author |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404019/Taslima-Nasrin |access-date=28 May 2009 |archive-date=29 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629052338/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404019/Taslima-Nasrin |url-status=live }}</ref> In August 1994, she was brought up on "charges of making inflammatory statements" and faced criticism from [[Islamic fundamentalists]]. A few hundred thousand demonstrators called her "an [[Apostasy|apostate]] appointed by imperial forces to vilify Islam"; a member of a militant faction threatened to set loose thousands of poisonous snakes in the capital unless she was executed.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Walsh |first=James |title=Death To the Author |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=15 August 1994 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981247,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081018211500/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981247,00.html |archive-date=18 October 2008 |access-date=1 June 2009}}</ref> After spending two months in hiding,  she escaped to Sweden at the end of 1994, consequently ceasing her medical practice and becoming a full-time writer and activist.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bangladeshi author and doctor Taslima Nasreen threatened by Islamic fundamentalists |publisher=Fileroom |url=http://www.thefileroom.org/documents/dyn/DisplayCase.cfm/id/1058 |access-date=28 May 2009 |archive-date=29 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829160034/http://www.thefileroom.org/documents/dyn/DisplayCase.cfm/id/1058 |url-status=live }}</ref>