Taslima Nasreen to live in Paris?

Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasreen, is under death threat from Islamist extremists who accuse her of blasphemy. She is to take up residence in Paris. Ms Nasreen was made an honorary citizen of Paris in July 2008. She put in an application for housing recently.

Municipal authorities have provided her with a large studio in the east of the French capital, and will initially pay her rent. When she was given honorary citizenship, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said, "You are at home here, in the city where it was proclaimed that men are born and remain free and equal and nobody can be condemned for their beliefs."

A gynaecologist by training, Ms Nasreen was forced to flee her native Bangladesh in 1994 after her novel Lajja (Shame) about the persecution of a Hindu family by Muslims in Bangladesh drew accusations of blasphemy. She spent several years moving between Europe and the United States before settling in Kolkata in 2004. But in September 2007 a movement in West Bengal by Islamic extremists and communist sympathizers demanded her expulsion from India. She has been forced to leave Kolkata and seek refuge in New Delhi where she was kept 'in safe custody' by the government.

As much as she wanted to live in India, Taslima had to finally leave to escape the 'death sentence'. "I get food and necessities, but I don't have freedom even to step out of where I am being confined ...,' she said. So, it was back to Sweden where she was given a free furnished apartment in Uppsala, with living expenses.

So far there has been no comment from her about the 'Paris decision'.

The Telegraph