The Hindu : Taslima to seek visa extension

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 25, 2002

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Taslima to seek visa extension

KOLKATA JUNE 24. The exiled Bangladeshi author, Taslima Nasreen, has said that she would leave for Sweden on June 28 to approach the Indian Embassy there for a visa extension to extend her stay in Kolkata.

Talking to presspersons here on Sunday after releasing a music cassette, "O Meye Sunchho", which comprise song compositions of her poems, Ms. Nasreen said: ``since my chances of returning to Bangladesh are nearly impossible, I want to stay in West Bengal. If I am granted a six-month visa stay every year, I would be too happy.''

``Moreover, I write in Bengali. Unless I live in a place where the language is spoken, my talents would not be properly harnessed,'' she added. "Kolkata is my second home after Bangladesh. Though Sweden has given me citizenship status, it is this country I long for."

Expressing a strong desire to visit her motherland, Ms. Nasreen said: ``I have always wanted to visit Bangladesh. I have remained away for nearly nine years. I have appealed to the authorities there to at least allow me to visit my ailing father. But they are not ready to accept me.''

Even the moderate Awami League Government had blocked her entry four years ago when she wanted to visit her ailing mother who passed away without seeing her. Taslima's latest book "Utal Hawa" is ready to hit the stands today. ``Utal Hawa is my autobiography and portrays my life from the age of 16 to 26, spent in a family which has its roots in a fundamentalist society.'' It is about life as seen through the eyes of the author who matures from her childhood days as revealed in her earlier autobiography ``Amar Meyebela'', banned by the Bangladesh Government in 1999.

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