Quotes from Taslima Nasrin

It is said that peace is the basic tenet of all religion. Yet it is in the name of religion that there has been so much disturbance, bloodshed and persecution. It is indeed a pity that even at the close of the twentieth century we've had to witness such atrocities because of religion. Flying the flag of religion has always proved the easiest way to crush to nothingness human beings as well as the spirit of humanity.

Let humanity be the other name for religion.

Jonathan Swift: 'We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

Even today, the politics of religion does not allow the subcontinent to become civilized and its people to become truly educated.

There are some people who are untranslatable.

According to Abdul Kalam Azad, 'It is one of the greatest frauds on the people to suggest that religious affinity can unite areas which are geographically, economically, linguistically and culturally different.

It's foolish to confront a weapon with bare hands.

peace is the ultimate goal of all religions but even at the end of this century we continue to see how religion is the cause of much strife, bloodshed and disgrace among human beings. Nothing but the flag of religion can crush human beings and humane emotions so completely.

The Bengalis saw endless bloodshed and trouble from 1947 to 1971 and this culminated in the Liberation War of 1971. The blood of 3 million Bengalis helped earn this freedom and also proved that religion could never be the foundation of a national identity. Language, culture and history provide the foundations for a national identity.

People don't leave their homeland simply because governments stage events. One's native land is not like the soil we put in flowerpots, where we pour water and fertilizer and then change the soil after an interval.

If you are rich, it doesn't matter whether you are Hindu or Muslim, that is how a capitalist society works. Take a look, poverty-stricken Muslims are in a similar situation. The rich, be they Hindu or Muslim, are subjugating the poor.

If I say that I'm educated and was jobless in Dhaka, that I want to work here, build myself a healthy, beautiful life, the kind of life that everyone dreams of, they'd just throw me out of the country. Political asylum they may just allow, but economical asylum - never!

Aggressive, crazed Hindus had broken the Babri Masjid and the Hindus of Bangladesh were expected to atone for the wrongs done by those people.

Sudhamoy consoled himself with the thought that it was not about Hindus and Muslims but about the strong torturing the weak whenever possible. Women are weak and so strong men torment them.

Riots mean fights—a conflict between one community and another is called a riot. But we cannot call these riots—these were attacks by one community on another. Torture. Persecution

Those who are creating the riots are not in tune with their religion. They want to plunder and destroy. Don't you know why the sweet shops get ravaged? People hanker after sweets. And gold shops too, because of greed for gold. It's the criminals and hoodlums who are on this spree of loot and plunder. There's really no conflict between the communities.

I felt so inadequate as Haroon fell over me, hungry as a tiger mauling a doe, delving deep into my body.

Suronjon understood that this person who had built a world within herself, who had long stopped venturing outside her household, she who did not differentiate between Parveen and Archana, had suddenly been rattled. She too had begun to ask whether only Muslims felt fury, anger and pride.

He no longer believed in ideals and stuff. He wished that he could kick out the beliefs he had held so dear all his life. Why should he bear the burden of these principles when all most people do is only touch their lips to the cup of wisdom but not take it into their hearts and minds? Why should he bother with being the only believer?

It is unfair to label me anti-Islam. I am an atheist and a secular humanist.

I strongly believe that no one can be a true feminist without being an atheist. All religions are anti-women. No one can be pro-woman while supporting anti-woman dogmas.

Religion, society and state - from none of these do women get their proper honor. It is religion, which has created an unparalleled disparity between men and women.

If any religion allows the persecution of the people of different faiths, if any religion keeps women in slavery, if any religion keeps people in ignorance, then I can't accept that religion.

Women are oppressed in the east, in the west, in the south, in the north. Women are oppressed inside, outside home, a woman is oppressed in religion, she is oppressed outside religion.