Bangladesh Writer Hides to Avoid Arrest Over Her Quoted Remarks on Koran

DHAKA, Bangladesh —  Feminist writer Taslima Nasrin remained in hiding Friday, avoiding a dragnet for her arrest on charges that she insulted Islam, while thousands of people poured into the streets of Dhaka to demand her death.

About 10,000 people demonstrated in Bangladesh’s capital, calling out, “Death for the infidel.”

“We demand her death and nothing less,” chanted one protester among thousands streaming from the city’s dozens of mosques after Friday noon prayers.

Nasrin, a physician-turned-writer in her late 30s, came under fire when the Statesman newspaper in Calcutta reported that she had said Islam’s holy book, the Koran, should be “revised thoroughly.” She has denied saying this.

The government ordered her arrest after the Bangladesh Times reprinted the Statesman article last Saturday, triggering an angry reaction from local Islamic fundamentalist groups.

Nasrin has since been in hiding, eluding a nationwide police dragnet. Her friends have said that a mandatory “no-bail” provision attached to the arrest order probably persuaded her not to surrender.

Police said Friday that Nasrin was eluding arrest through friends and influential contacts.

Fundamentalist groups have vowed to press a national campaign for Nasrin’s arrest and execution.

Nearly a dozen religious leaders led a protest march from Dhaka’s central Baitul Mokarram mosque, saying they would not tolerate any move to let Nasrin go free.

In a letter sent Thursday to the speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament, Nasrin said she was misquoted by the Statesman, and blamed an inexperienced non-Muslim reporter.

“The female reporter of Statesman failed to understand the difference between the Koran and Sharia law. I asked for changes in the Sharia law to ensure equal rights for men and women,” Nasrin said in the letter.

“Not a single word in the Koran can be changed. I know that fully well and I have never said anything about changes in the book,” Nasrin said.

Bangladesh has banned Nasrin’s book “Lajja” (“Shame”), saying it offends Muslim sentiments and lies about the sufferings of Bangladesh’s minority Hindus.

The Women’s Development Forum of Bangladesh has demanded the withdrawal of charges against Nasrin.

The case is reminiscent of that of Salman Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses,” which was regarded by many Muslim fundamentalists as blasphemous.

Rushdie has been in hiding since 1989, when Iran’s late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for his death.