Bangladeshi writer and activist Taslima Nasreen returned to Kolkata on Friday, nearly two decades after she was forced to leave the city following protests over her controversial memoir Dwikhondito. She arrived at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport amid heavy security. "I am really liking it here," Nasreen told reporters after landing in Kolkata.
According to NDTV, Nasreen is scheduled to attend a programme against fundamentalism at Rabindra Sadan on Saturday. The event is expected to be attended by the Chief Minister of West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari and noted author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay.
Earlier, speaking to PTI, Nasreen described her visit as a "personal homecoming", saying she never left Kolkata of her own choice and had always hoped to return. She also said she was returning "with joy, but also with pain", recalling that Kolkata had given her a home, friends, readers and a sense of belonging before she was forced to leave.
VIDEO | Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen arrives at Kolkata Airport, nearly two decades after she was forced to leave Kolkata following protests over her controversial book 'Dwikhondito'.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 31, 2026
(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/sSkHNuuZkD
"I never left Kolkata willingly; the then West Bengal government forced me to leave the state. Yet I never stopped hoping that one day I would return. Year after year passed, governments changed, and still the door remained closed," she said.
This marks Nasreen's first public appearance in Kolkata since 2007, when protests over Dwikhondito forced her to leave the city, which had become her home after she fled Bangladesh in the 1990s. The memoir was banned by the then CPI(M)-led West Bengal government in 2003 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
The 63-year-old author currently lives in Delhi on a long-term residence permit.
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