Taslima: Desperately want to return to Bangladesh, but am not allowed
Times of India | 6 August 2026
Kolkata: Bangladesh-born author Taslima Nasrin, who left the city on Wednesday after her first trip to Kolkata in 19 years, said:.“I want to return to Bangladesh, but I am not allowed to do so.” She also expressed a desire to come back to Kolkata whenever called.
“The Bangladesh govt doesn’t renew my passport and doesn’t provide a visa for my Swedish passport either. If they don’t provide those, then I won’t have any valid document to travel there. I desperately want to return to Bangladesh. I have been in exile for 32 years now. It’s not that I don’t go because I don’t want to come back. I am not allowed to return,” the 63-year old physician-turned-author said at the Kolkata airport on Wednesday.
Nasrin said that, for now, she will stay in India. Describing her experience in Kolkata, she said, “I received immense love from the ordinary people in the city. It brought tears to my eyes. I had a wonderful time and made a lot of memories. I will return to the city soon, probably in Oct. I have plans to visit in Jan, and definitely during the Kolkata book fair. Whenever the city will call me, I will come back,” Nasrin said.
Nasrin had arrived in Kolkata on Friday after 19 years. She had been forced to leave the city in Nov 2007 following violent protests over her presence.
In her brief five-day stay, she attended an event at Rabindra Sadan where chief minister Suvendu Adhikari felicitated her on Saturday. She addressed a packed auditorium and recited her poems. On Sunday, she visited her Rawdon Street flat, soaked in the old-world charm of College Street Coffee House on Monday, and paid tribute to Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain at Panihati Balika Vidyalaya on Tuesday.