Author in exile is given jail term for criticising Islam

The feminist author Taslima Nasrin has been sentenced in absentia to one year in jail by a Bangladeshi court for criticising Islam in her books.

She fled her home country eight years ago and this is the first sentence on her, imposed three years after an Islamic cleric brought the complaint.

The writer was not repre-sented at Gopalganj court, 60 miles south-west of the capital, Dhaka, on Saturday.

She fled to Europe after death threats from hardline Islamic groups angered by publication of her 1994 novel Lajja (Shame). It was banned, as were her two subsequent books, My Childhood and Wild Wind. She jumped bail in 1994 – the government had charged her with blasphemy – and fled to Europe, where she has been in self-imposed exile. She returned home in 1998 to visit her dying mother and has said she wants to go back again.

To appeal against the verdict, she must surrender to the trial court. Her 1994 book depicted attacks on minority Hindus by Muslims in Bangladesh after the destruction of a 16th- century mosque.