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Home > Token Skeptic Podcast > Token Skeptic #16 - On One Woman's Struggle For Secularism
Podcast: Token Skeptic Podcast
Episode:

Token Skeptic #16 - On One Woman's Struggle For Secularism
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:48:16
Publish Date: 2010-04-09 03:29:00
Description: The Rise Of Atheism, 2010 Global Atheist Convention featured one of the most engaging speakers I've ever heard - Taslima Nasrin. This is her presentation, called ''On my Struggle for Secularism, Human Rights, Freedom of Expression and For Women's Freedom'. When I started researching all the presenters that I was going to introduce, I knew that a) most people in the audience would have no idea who she was and b) they were going to be completely blown away by her story when they did hear her speak. Taslima Nasrin is from Bangladesh, was raised as a Muslim and has long been targeted by Muslim extremists. In 1994, she was forced into exile from her native country after mass demonstrations demanded her death for blasphemy and the government charged her with 'hurting religious feelings'. In 2007, after moving to the neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal, Muslim protests forced Taslima out of India. She is able only to visit, and even that seems quite tentative. In an editorial comment on the riots, The Hindu newspaper strongly defended Taslima Nasrin and noted that 'By violently protesting every instance of publication of her articles, the religious fundamentalists obviously want to force a ban, otherwise legally unsustainable, on her critical and creative works.' From my own perspective, it was incredibly daunting to be on a stage when there were bodyguards surrounding it, because of the threats to her life. You can hear for yourself at the end of this recording, how there was a solid minute and a half of applause for her presentation. There were some sound difficulties during the Question and Answer segment, so if you're not quite sure about what was happening there, it was because presenters on the stage couldn't hear the questions due to technical difficulties. I asked the Atheist Foundation of Australia for permission to use the audio and they said as long as credit was given to the GAC for providing the resource and to Gary Bryson of the ABC was given, it was fine. So, many thanks to both of them! Taslima Nasrin's official site is at: http://taslimanasrin.com The official site for Token Skeptic is at www.tokenskeptic.org. Themes by Derek Miller (P & P) at www.penmachine.com and Milton Mermikides (365) at www.miltonmermikides.com.
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