In 1993, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin published her first novel Lajja—Shame. According to Nasrin, Lajja was “a symbol of protest against violence, hatred and killings in the name of religion.” The novel became the centre of a controversy in Bangladesh, facing criticism from many who believed that her book unjustly vilified Islam. Later that year, Islamic fundamentalists issued a fatwa against Nasrin for blasphemy and insults to Islam. The Muslim clerics called for her executionand set a bounty on her head. The following year, in 1994, Nasrin escaped to Sweden where the government granted her a resident permit. She has been living in exile since, dividing her time between America, Europe and India. In 2003, her book, Dwikhandita—Two Parts—the third part of her memoirs, was banned in West Bengal on the grounds that it “could incite enmity between different groups.” The ban was later lifted in 2005. The first two parts of her memoirs, Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood) and Utal Hawa (Wild Wind) had earlier been banned in Bangladesh. In 2007, Nasrin was forced to leave Kolkata, her home in exile in India, following widespread protests after Muslim clerics in Kolkata issued a death warrant against her. Although she has been traveling since, Nasrin continues to live in India on a tourist visa, which was recently extended for a year in September 2014. She has often faced harsh criticism for her controversial statements against Islam and Muslims, the most of recent of which was her support for the arrest of American teenager Ahmed Mohamed. On 14 September this year, Mohamed was taken into custody for bringing to school a clock that he had made, which was suspected of being an explosive device. In an interview with Nikhil Pandhi, an intern at The Caravan, Nasrin speaks about her life in India, her position as an atheist writer against the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism and the crisis of secularism in Bangladesh, a country that has seen a recurrent spate of anti-free-speech activities in recent times, including the violent deaths of secular bloggers.

Nikhil Pandhi: As an atheist Bangadeshi writer in exile, what was your reaction to the murder of Niloy Neel, the fourth secular blogger to be targeted in Bangladesh?

Taslima Nasrin: I was worried about all the atheist bloggers in Bangladesh who were killed, yet I knew that I was out of Bangladesh so there was not much to be afraid of. I knew I was living in a better place. After Niloy Neel was murdered, there was an intelligence report published in a Bangladeshi newspaper that the Ansarullah Bangla Team, the organisation which was killing the atheist bloggers, had decided to kill me also. They were allegedly going to send some killers to me. Of course, I was a little scared because of the report.

NP: In a recent column, you compared the murders of bloggers in Bangladesh to the attacks on the scholar MM Kalburgi and other Indian rationalists.

TN: It is almost the same thing here [in India], except the fact that the Islamists [in Bangladesh] are much more organised. Here, I don’t know how organised the Hindu fundamentalists are but they could be lone killers. But, in Bangladesh, they are more organised, almost like they are organised when they formed ISIS, Boko Haram or Al Shabab—they are much more organised than other religious terrorists in Bangladesh.