Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin, during her three day visit to Kolkata - on Saturday, said former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should be allowed to return to Bangladesh and that the ban on the Awami League should be lifted to restore democratic norms.
Nasrin said this to reporters during a press interaction, her first such appearance in the city in nearly 19 years. She has long lived in exile after facing threats over her writings critical of religious fundamentalism and for women’s rights. She linked Hasina’s possible return to the broader need for democracy in Bangladesh.
“Sheikh Hasina should return and that democracy should be restored in Bangladesh,” Nasrin said, according to reports of her statements in the city. She noted that it would have been preferable for the Awami League to remain the principal opposition party rather than seeing greater influence for groups such as Jamaat-e-Islami.
The author has previously expressed similar views, including support for Hasina’s right to return safely, live in the country, and participate in politics, as well as for lifting restrictions on the Awami League so that voters - not bans - decide political outcomes. She has maintained this position even while criticising past actions by Hasina’s governments toward her own writings and exile.
Nasrin also spoke more widely about Bangladesh during her Kolkata stay, calling for a clearer separation of religion and state, greater emphasis on secular education, and measures such as a uniform civil code to protect women’s rights. She voiced concern over the influence of fundamentalist elements and the treatment of minorities.
Her return to Kolkata itself was framed around themes of free expression and the end of past restrictions that had kept her away since 2007. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari attended one of her events at Rabindra Sadan on Saturday and assured her of security for future visits. Nasrin emphasised that her appearance was not in support of any political party but focused on women’s rights, secularism, and freedom of speech.
Nasrin continues to live outside Bangladesh and has said no invitation or conditions currently allow her own safe return, though she has never relinquished her claim to that right. Hasina was forced to resign and leave Bangladesh on August 5, 2024, after weeks of student led protests that began over a controversial job quota system and widened into a nationwide movement against her government. Security forces’ response to the demonstrations, reportedly, left hundreds dead, and as crowds closed in on her official residence in Dhaka, she boarded a military helicopter and later a plane that took her to India. An interim administration headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was then installed, parliament was dissolved, and the period that followed saw continued unrest, large-scale arrests of Awami League figures, and the eventual suspension of the party’s activities. In elections that happened in February 2026, BNP returned to power in the country after a long hiatus. Presently Tarique Rehman is the Prime Minister of the country, while the ban on Awami League continues.
