Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin was forced into hiding in the Indian capital of New Delhi last night after protests from Muslim groups led to riots, the Guardian in London reported today. The protests follow the publication in August of Nasrin's Shodh (Getting Even), a novel that, according to Muslim groups, contains "extreme liberal views." Nasrin fled Kolkata, where she had been living on a tourist visa since 2004, and was taken to a safe house in Rajasthan last night. She will be moved to a guarded apartment in New Delhi.
In 1994, Nasrin fled her native Bangladesh when thousands of Muslims threatened to kill her for blasphemy after she remarked that the Qur'an must be changed to give women greater rights. At a rally in Kolkata earlier this year, a Muslim preacher placed a 100,000 rupee (approximately $2,500) bounty on her head. In Bangladesh, her books are banned.
"I have no place to go," Nasrin told Indian journalists. "India is my home and I would like to keep living in this country until I die."
