Exile comes full circle: Taslima Nasrin on Sheikh Hasina’s fall and why Yunus reminds her of Jinnah

Taslima Nasrin - File Photo

In an extraordinary twist of fate, two women once separated by ideology and power now share the same city in exile—Delhi. One is author Taslima Nasrin, forced out of Bangladesh for her outspoken criticism of religious fundamentalism and patriarchy. The other, Sheikh Hasina, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, ousted in 2024 and now living in self-imposed exile after her government fell to the Muhammad Yunus-led interim regime.

Speaking exclusively to News18, on the sidelines of the Puri Literary Festival 2025, organised by the ministry of culture in collaboration with the Odisha government, Nasrin reflected on the irony of their shared exile. “Hasina and I live in the same city now. I’ve heard she sometimes goes out for walks. I often wonder, if I ever run into her in and around Lodhi Garden or somewhere else, what would I say? I think I’ll ask her, how does it feel to lose one’s home?” she told News18.

Taslima Nasrin was first exiled in 1994 by the government of Khaleda Zia and again in 1999 under Hasina’s leadership. Her passport was never renewed, her books were banned, and charges of blasphemy were levelled against her. “They didn’t just expel me,” Nasrin told News18, “They made sure I had no soil to stand on. I was hounded for speaking the truth.”

Despite the persecution she faced, Nasrin did not rejoice when Hasina was removed from power. Instead, she condemned the violent attacks on Awami League workers and Hindu minorities that followed the regime change. She also objected when an artist distorted Hasina’s image, asserting, “I have never fought people—I’ve fought an ideology.”

Nasrin's principles have remained unchanged. “Through my craft, my literature, I spoke against fanatics, misogynists, and people who discriminate. I stand where I always have, and that stand is against ‘jihadis’, against fanaticism, against hate, against injustice,” she said.

Drawing a stark comparison between Muhammad Yunus and Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Nasrin told News18, “Both were educated in the West—Jinnah in London, Yunus in the US. Both seemed detached from religious orthodoxy in their earlier lives. But when power was at stake, both surrendered to the same toxic and fanatic forces.”

She added that while these figures may present polished exteriors through Western education and diplomacy, they often end up empowering the very forces they once appeared distant from. “It’s always dressed up differently—suits, degrees, polite speeches—but the result appears to be the same,” Nasrin said.

For the exiled writer, now watching a former head of state experience a similar loss of homeland, the symmetry is haunting. “People change. Power fades. But the consequences of injustice endure,” she concluded.