Taslima Nasrin's Biography

(Taslima Nasrin)

Taslima Nasrin (also Taslima Nasreen, born 25 August 1962) is a Bangladeshi author and former physician who has been living in exile since 1994. From a literary profile as a poet in the late 1970s, she rose to global attention by the beginning of 1990s owing to her essays and novels with feminist views and criticism of all "misogynistic" religions including Islam.

After living more than a decade in Europe and the USA, Taslima moved to India in 2005, but she was banished from India in 2008.

She advocates freedom of thought and human rights by publishing, lecturing, and campaigning. She has been unable to return either to her home in Bangladesh or to her adopted home of West Bengal, India .

Student life

• 1976 - Secondary School Certificate 1st division 
• 1978 - Higher Secondary certificate 1st division 
• 1984- Medical Degree ( M.B.B.S) 
• 1985- Entered In-service training

Life as a Doctor

• 1986-1989- Taslima worked in the villages as a medical officer. 
• 1990-1993- She worked in gynecology and anesthesiology departments in medical college and hospitals. 
• 1993- She was forced to quit her job, as the Government confiscated her passport and asked her to stop writings.

A Writer's life

• 1975- She begins publishing her poems in literary magazines. 
• 1978- Started editing and publishing poetry magazine. 
• 1986- Her first poetry book was published. 
• 1989- Taslima's second poetry book was published. She started writing columns on women's rights in the newspapers and magazines and became a very popular columnist. 
• 1990- Saw the publication of her third poetry book. Islamic fundamentalists started campaign against her and broke the newspaper offices and filed cases against her because she criticized Islamic oppression on women. 
• 1991- This year saw her book 'Selected Columns' getting published and her becoming a best selling author. Islamic fundamentalists continued their vicious demonstrations and processions against her all over the country. 
• 1992- Taslima's second book of essays was published. Her books of poetry and novels also were published. ''Taslima smash committee'' was formed. They burnt Taslima's book in the national book fair. And Taslima was not allowed to visit the book fair. She received the prestigious literary award ''Ananda'' for her book ''selected columns'' from India. And also became a best-selling author in West Bengal, a state of India. 
• 1993- Her documentary novel 'Lajja', which is a protest against the torture on the minority community of Bangladesh was published. Lajja was banned by the Government of Bangladesh. The third book of essays on women's freedom was published. Taslima was physically attacked by the fundamentalists in the national book fair. They broke the bookstall where she was giving autographs to her readers. She was asked by the book fair committee not to visit the fair anymore. Islamic fundamentalists issued fatwa against her and set a price on her head. 
• 1994- Her books started getting published in many Indian and European languages. Muslim fundamentalists demanded her execution by hanging. Countrywide protest started against Taslima's views. Death penalty against blasphemy was demanded. The Government of Bangladesh filed a case against her on the charges of hurting religious feelings of the people and a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against her. She went into hiding with the help of a few secular people in Bangladesh. 300,000 fundamentalists held a public meeting and demanded her death. General Strikes were called all over the country to demand Taslima's execution. The country was paralyzed by the strikes. Two more fatwas were issued against her by the religious fundamentalists. Writers and intellectuals outside Bangladesh supported Taslima and demanded her safety and security. After staying in hiding for two months, she was granted bail from the high court and was forced to leave her country. She received the Kurt Tucholsky prize from the Swedish PEN. 
• Sakharov prize for freedom of thoughts was given to her by the European Parliament. She received the Human Rights award From the French Government. She was awarded with Edit de Nantes prize in France. Bangladeshi publishers and newspapers-editors stopped publishing her books and columns. 
• 1995- Honorary Doctorate degree was given from Gent University, Belgium. 
• 1996- A poetry book that expressed her longing for her homeland was published. 
• 1997- Started writing her autobiography 
• 1999- First part of her autobiography was banned by the Bangladesh Government. 
• 2000- She received Ananda literary award from West Bengal, India. 
• 2002- Seocnd part of her autobiography was banned by the Bangladesh Government. A Bangladesh court sentenced her to one year in prison on a charge of writing derogatory comments about Islam in several of her books. 
• 2003- Third part of her autobiography was banned by Bangladesh court. She got fellowship from Harvard University, USA. Nearly 4 million dollar defamation lawsuits were filed against Taslima for writing Dwikhandito both in Bangladesh and in India by two male writers. West Bengal Government banned 'Dwikhandito', the third part of her autobiography on the charges of hurting religious feelings of the people. 
• 2004- Fourth part of her autobiography was banned by Bangladesh Government. A prize for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence was given from UNESCO. 2005- Received Honorary Doctorate from American University of Paris, France. Grand prix International Codorcet-Aron 
• 2005 was given from the French-Parliament in Belgium. Kolkata High Court lifted the ban on her book. 
• 2007-2008- Blacklisted in Bangladesh, she is now blacklisted in the West Bengal, a state of India. Newspaper-editors refused to publish her articles and the publishers were afraid to print her books. She was given 'Simone de Beauvoir prize' in France. 'Citizen of Honor' was given by the city of Paris, France. Prins Global fellowship was given by the literature department of New York University, USA. 
• 2009 Malayalam edition of her new book ''Shame again'' was published in Kerala. And Hindi version of her books ''Bondini'' and ''Narir kono Desh nei'' were published in New Delhi, India. ''Bondini'' and ''Narir kono desh nei'' were published in Bangladesh by her family members. Taslima received Woodrow Wilson fellowship in the USA. Taslima received 'Feminist Press Award' for her writing on feminism in the USA. 
• 2010 Taslima's 6th part of autobiography ( nei, kichu nei) is published both in India and Bangladesh. A group of courageous Bengali intellectuals started publishing Taslima's column in their Magazine called ''Robbar'', but after one article was published, she was banned. Jansatta, a Hindi newspaper, after publishing 4 columns of Taslima, banned her. A newspaper in karnataka, India published Taslima's column without taking her permission. It was about Taslima's advice to women not to wear burqa, the symbol of oppression. 15,000 Muslim fanatics started violent protest against the publication and burnt the newspaper offices. Two people were killed. Curfew was imposed in the cities. 
• 2012 Taslima’s new book the 7th part of autobiography ‘Nirbasan’ was not allowed to be launched at Kolkata Book Fair. Police and Book Fair committee banned book launch. Aagami Prakashan is publishing Taslima’s books legally in Bangladesh.

Life in exile 1994

Taslima lived in Sweden and started getting invitations from all over the world to give lectures on Human Rights, Women's Rights, Secularism and Freedom of expression. She became a symbol of free speech.

1995-1996- Lived to Germany. She did not want to give up her Bangladesh passport. 

1997- Moved to Sweden. As a political refugee she received the United Nation's travel document. 

1998- Started living in the USA. She wanted to go back to Bangladesh to be with her ailing mother but the Government denied her entry into the country. Taslima came out of her political asylum, cancelled her refugee status by returning the UN travel document that is given to the political refugees. Then, she got her Bangladesh passport back from the Swedish authorities. And despite getting no permission from the Bangladesh Government, with that passport she entered into her country A case was filed against her on the charges of hurting religious feelings. A non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against her. She was forced to leave her country once again. She became the number one target of Huji, the Islamic terrorist group. After staying for three months in her country, she was forced to leave once again. 

1999-2000- Lived in France After 6 years of waiting, she was granted visa for India and she immediately visited Kolkata where she could felt at home. Taslima was invited to go to Mumbai to inaugurate her book in Mumbai, India. But the Islamic fundamentalists started campaign against her and declared that they would burn her alive if she arrives in Mumbai. 

2001-2002- Lived in Sweden and visited India with tourist visa. Bangladesh Government had been refusing to renew her passport for years so she was forced to carry an European passport. She begged the Government to allow her to enter Bangladesh so that she could be with her dying father at least for a few days. But she was denied to enter her own country. Her father died. 

2003-2004- The fundamentalists issued fatwa against her in India. She got residence permit to live in India. She moved to Kolkata and started living there, For the first time in her exile life, she settled somewhere. 

2005- One more fatwa was issued against her in UP, India. A price of Rupees 500,000 was set for her head. 

2006--Taslima was invited in Midnapore in West Bengal to attend a cultural program, the Muslim fundamentalists protested against her visit, so that the authority cancelled the program. Taslima was invited to inaugurate a book fair in Siliguri in West Bengal, she was prevented to go there after the fanatics protested against her. 

2007- She was attacked by the Muslim fundamentalists in Hyderabad, India. The fundamentalists issued fatwa against her and set a price ( unlimited reward) on her head in a public meeting in Kolkata. She was invited by the Allahabad University as a speaker, but because she was attacked in Hyderabad, the University cancelled Taslima's lecture. She was forced to live under virtual house arrest in Kolkata and was constantly asked by the WB Government to leave the state. Violent protest was held by the Muslim fundamentalists demanding her deportation from India. She was thrown out of Kolkata by West Bengal Government. She was sent to city of Jaipur in Rajasthan, but was not allowed to stay there. She was bundled out of Jaipur. She was kept in an undisclosed location in Delhi where she was forced to live under house arrest. 

2008- The Government asked Taslima to leave India. After staying for seven-and-ahalf months under house arrest she was forced to leave India in March. Taslima applied for the renewal of her Bangladesh passport again. And again it was denied to her. She even requested Bangladesh Government to issue a ''no visa required' stamp or at least a tourist visa for Bangladesh on her European passport. But this was also not granted. She returned to India in August. She had to stay in Delhi and was not allowed to go to Kolkata, not even for two days to pack her bags and leave. She was forced to quit her establishment in Kolkata. She was given the extension of her residence permit with the condition that she must leave India within a few days after her permit was renewed. She was forced to leave India once again. 

2009 Taslima came to India in Februay before her residence permit expired. But the world's largest democracy laid down that Taslima could get an extension of her residence permit for India only if she gives an undertaking that: 

1. She would leave India (and she must show her flight ticket to prove she is leaving) before 17th of February ( the day her residence permit would expire), 

2. She must not go to Kolkata, 

3. She must not interact with media and 4.She must not enter India before 31st May (by this time the general election in India would be over). Taslima had no other alternative but to leave India silently. Mayor of Paris invited Taslima to stay in a artist's residence in Paris for 6 months. She tried to go back to Bangladesh, but failed. The government of Bangladesh continued to deny her right to return. She returned to India in August to find out whether she could live in Delhi, if not Kolkata. But the Government of India refused to give her permission to live anywhere in India. The Government extended her residential permit with the precondition that she must not reside in India and she would have to leave immediately after the permit was renewed. Taslima was forced to leave India again. Dipu Moni, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, has been frequently telling the media that the Bangladesh Government has no problem in allowing Taslima to enter her country. Dipu Moni said, Taslima can return to Bangladesh whenever she wants. But in reality, Taslima is not being allowed to enter her country. After Dipu Moni's public statement, Taslima applied to renew her Bangladesh passport so that she could enter Bangladesh, but the Bangladesh Government did not respond. She also tried to get a Bangladesh visa on her European passport. Even that has been denied to her. 

2010 Taslima returned to India in February. Her residence permit for India was extended for 6 months. But she was told by the government that her residence permit would not be further extended. Taslima was again shocked. In 2007, making a statement in the Indian parliament, the foreign minister said ''throughout history, India has never refused shelter to those who have come and sought our protection. This civilizational heritage, which is now government policy, will continue, and India will provide shelter to Ms. Nasreen''. In 2008, the PM of India wrote “India’s glorious tradition of welcoming people irrespective of caste, community and religion will continue, whatever be the odds. The atmosphere of hate being perpetuated by a small segment within the country will not prevent us from persisting with this tradition. We recognize Taslima Nasreen’s right to remain in a country of her choice, viz, India in this case. She should also have the option to choose which ever city or state she chooses.”

Taslima's residence permit for India has been extended in August 17.

Collected from : Taslima Nasrin's Website and Wikipedia

Written by : Biographical Blogger

AKASH's Biography

(Salman Aziz aka AKASH)

Salman Aziz (born  December 19, 1993) is a Bangladeshi realistic writer, filmmaker, independent multi artist, blogger, model, spokesperson, influential person, human rights activist and entertainer. Born in Pabna city and brought up in Kushtia city and mostly in Dhaka city. Salman Aziz is better known by his fan given name as AKA$H which is the stylized version of his nick name AKASH. Akash attended his school in a very early age. And he also completed his S.S.C. and H.S.C. exams with great success in his very young age. In 2008, he started his modelling career in his local area fashion house named R.M. fashion house in Dhaka city where he was modeled for two seasons only. After the success, he had to quit the modelling due to his study purpose. From 2010 to 2017, Akash continued his education on Bachelors of Science in a well-known university and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering. He is known for his realistic writing and blogging. He is also well-known for his short film “Bloody Dark Dream (2014)” which has been included in IMDb and made him recognizable in worldwide. He always thinks good and tries to help for the humankind and the world. He is also a fighter for world peace with love and peace.

Early life:

Salman Aziz was born in Pabna city to his grandparent’s home (from mother’s side), Bangladesh. And he grew up in Kushtia city to his father’s home for a short time and mostly in Dhaka city where his grandparent’s secondary home (from mother’s side). He is the only and youngest son of his parents. He has an elder sister. Salman Aziz is also better known for his birth name Akash. And his family surname is Islam. Basically in his early age his full name was Akash Islam. But at the age of 9, his father decided to change his name into Salman Aziz where Aziz was the nickname of his grandfather (From father side). Although Akash was born in Pabna but he had hardly went there. And even Akash can’t speak their native language. He is a clean Bengali speaker. 

(AKASH)

Career:

He debuted in his first modelling career in 2008, in a very well-known fashion house named R.M. Fashion at Ayesha Shopping Complex, Dhaka. He was invented by the proprietor of the fashion house. Then he was modeled for the men’s traditional clothes Panjabi in Bangladesh for two major Eid seasons. He also modeled for other well-known fashion houses in Dhaka. Only for his study for H.S.C. exam, he had to quit his modelling career. And that was the end of his modelling career in his very early age. After his exam, he had tried to do modelling but due to his family problem he stopped it.

But the end was not the end for Akash. He started to capture his own fashion photography and posted it in various Social Medias. In 2011, he became the fresh face on ModelManagement.com a well-known website for the models. He also was a web model for a website and blogs. He was also a social media model.

In 2014, he created an artistic short film named Bloody Dark Dream and uploaded it in YouTube which praised him as a well video maker. The short film was loved by many Hollywood celebrities. In his twitter, they appreciated his work. Only for this short film, one of his fan from YouTube stylized his name as AKA$H just like KE$HA. He uses that fan given name as his name also. Most of the time, he uses his name as Akash or AKA$H in his websites.

(AKASH)

In the same year, he began to write blogs, although he had a good skill in writing from his childhood. During his childhood he wrote many poems and social welfare writes in local newspaper and school journals. He also got many prizes for writing stories and poem in his school time. He had stopped his regular writing before his S.S.C. exams to admission time in university. During these times, he rarely wrote. After creating his own official blog site, he posted and still he is posting many social welfare blogs, public awareness blogs and many poems. He has taken a lifetime project on writing a book called Told and Untold which still is not published. The book is a lifetime project for him. From his own words, he is collecting different stories to represent the every sectors of life in a very artistic way.

From his childhood Akash was a very well thinker for the world people. So he began to write for the humans rights through his stories, poems and blogs. He is still fighting for the world peace through his own writes. In his thought, he thinks that it is the best way to reach the people’s mind. He wrote many public awareness blogs. He also made many videos in his Social Medias to spread his messages to the people. Not only video messages but also he captured many eye catching pictures to reach the people’s mind. He also influences his fans and others to do good works for the people and the world. He is still fighting for people’s rights and world peace with love, unity, equality and justice.

(AKASH)

Akash is also a good photographer. When he gets his free time, he captures natural photos. And those photos are so meaningful. Cause, each photo tells a different story to open people’s eye.

Controversy:

(AKASH)

Face:

Akash has a small mole on his left cheek which he doesn’t like. So most of the time in his fashion photoshoot he retouches his face to remove the spot. And this photo editing made a huge issue for his fans. So many times, his fans get angry for his photo editing and also tell him as a fake.

Troll:

In 2016, Akash took participant as a social media volunteer for US Presidential election campaign for Hillary Clinton. He never likes Donald Trump to become the President of US. He protested so many times through his Social Medias. But Donald Trump won the election. For his videos and tweets, he got many negative comments from the Trump supporters. Even he got death threat. In 2017, he unfortunately got a troll from people which gone viral in his country. People made a bad troll to relate with Donald Trump as Donald Trump’s Mother. This made him very upset and forced him to stay away from the Social Medias for a long time.

Blog:

(AKA$H)

When he wrote his first blog about women’ rights, he got negative review from the readers. Many of them compared him with Taslima Nasreen a secular writer in Bangladesh. And gave him death threat to stop write his blog. Because it that time Taslima Nasreen was a very fire topic in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. That made him to stop writing blogs for a long time and forced him to delete his first blog.

Voice:

He has a very lower tone voice which makes him insecure. Cause people compare his voice with female voice. Due to his illness he got this voice. Akash has a tonsil infection. 

Education:

AKA$H started his educational journey in a very early age. For his sharp brain and hunger for education, he was in school at only 4 years old. At his 13 years old, he gave his Secondary School Certificate (S.S.C) exam from his grandfather’s home (from his father’s side) in Kushtia. And his S.S.C. result came out on 2008 with excellent grade point A+ (GPA-5) in science background from Jessore Board. After permanently shifted his home in Dhaka city, he admitted in a very reputed college in 2008 named Milestone College, Dhaka in science back ground. In 2010, he appeared on his Higher Secondary Certificate (H.S.C) exam and passed the exam with wonderful grade point A+ (GPA-5) from Dhaka Board.

In 2010, he admitted into a reputed private university in Dhaka city to complete his bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering. There he continued his education for 8 semesters. Due to some problems and health issue he transferred his credits to a nearby another well-known private university in Dhaka city. There he successfully completed his bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering in 2016. His meritorious result came out with certificates in January 2017. He got CGPA-3.87 out of 4 which is equivalent to A+/A grade. He took almost 7 years to complete his bachelor’s degree instead of 4 years due to only for his self-problems and health issue. 

From his childhood, he was attracted by robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Even in his university’s final project he took a robotics project as his own final project where the project was very challenging for him to complete. Because in his university nobody did such kind of project in previous. With huge obstacles from his family side and public side, he took 2 semesters to complete the project. And his project was very unique and totally new not only nationally but also internationally. But only for his own mistakes and foolishness he is still suffering lots of things in his professional career.

He also appeared with his team with the robotic project in a very well know national project show called BASIS Soft Expo 2017 in February 1^st to 4^th 2017. In the conference he and his team got very well feedback about the project name “AI in Business”. Even some of the investors were ready to invest the project to make it real in the Bangladesh. Almost everybody appreciated his and his team’s robotic project and got inspiration from the project to make Bangladesh more and more technology involved.

He is still trying to continue his higher educations. But due to some problems his educational life also meets with lots of ups and downs. His aim is to complete a Ph.D. degree.  And teach other people to study on micro technology, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Although his major subject in bachelor’s degree was artificial intelligence, he is still trying to study on every sector of computer science and engineering to enrich his knowledge.

Personal life:

Akash is a very caring boy. He is very helpful to the people and very careful to the people around him. He loves to help the people. In 2013, due to his anxiety, depression and eating disorder he fallen in sick and admitted to the hospital. After his health recovery, he suffered from several mental pressures. He is still suffering from high blood pressure. He is battling with his anxiety, depression and hypertension in his very young age. He is in his medication to maintain his health. He has hypersensitivity and lack of confidence. He also has emotion and nervous breakdown. Those make huge effect on his career.

Trademark:

Akash has very innocent eyes which he belongs inherently from his mother. He is also known for wonderful smile to the people.

Collected from : AKA$H's Facebook Page and various sources like Twitter, Instagram etc.

Written by : Biographical Blogger

(This is my first blog about this almost known Bangladeshi Blogger AKA$H)