Writers muzzled by Bangladesh's censorship

Muslims visit a stall at Amor Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka on Feb. 19. The Supreme Court has banned two books and ordered their removal from the fair on grounds of hurting religious feelings. (Photo: Stephan Uttom/UCA News

Bangladesh's top court has banned two books by an atheist blogger for allegedly hurting religious sentiments in the Muslim-majority country that has seen a deadly rise of radicalism and brutal murders of bloggers and free thinkers in recent times.

The Supreme Court banned two books — Dia Arefin and Grandmother's Dictum — written by Darais Arag, an atheist blogger, on Feb. 26 and ordered them to be removed from Amor Ekushey Boilmela, the country's largest annual book fair.

The court also ordered Bangla Academy, the organizer of the book fair, to cancel the stall of Sristhighar, the publisher of the books.

The order was in response to a petition filed by lawyer Azharullah Bhuiyan. "The contents of both the books hurt religious beliefs and an individual's choice of clothing. The contents could incite communal riots in the country," Bhuiyan told journalists.

Officials of Bangla Academy, the state-run autonomous body for promotion of Bangla language, literature and culture, said the books had already been removed after they found "objectionable materials." They added that Sristhighar was not allocated a stall and they stopped the illegal selling of the books from other stalls.

The court decision has not gone down well with supporters of free speech.

"Religious bigots, who exploit religion and dictate what to do and not do, have a strong influence on the government even though they are small in numbers. Freedom of speech is being strangled to death," Father Anthony Sen, a member of the Catholic bishops' Justice and Peace Commission, told UCA News.

"We live in a modern world that changes every day, but if our economic development is not linked with basic human rights like freedom of speech, it cannot be sustainable. Truth should be revealed, even if it is unpleasant. Sadly, this is not happening due to a rise of radicalism and appeasing of extremists."

In recent years, freedom of speech has been under constant threat not only from radicals but also from an increasingly authoritarian ruling government, according to Baki Billah, a prominent blogger and online activist.

"There are two reasons behind the constant gagging of freedom of speech — a rise in radicalism and authoritarian politics. Both contribute to a gradual shrinking space for free thinking and freedom of speech. The ruling party has developed a unity with religious extremists, and by appeasing radicals it has also turned into a conservative force itself," Billah told UCA News.

A truly democratic state should allow diverse and even contrasting elements to have their voices heard, he said

"There must be diverse intellectual elements and even contradictory materials in a society because in order to progress we must allow everyone to speak up or write as they feel best. Let there be clashes of thoughts and writings. If we don't allow it, we face the risk of creeping intolerance and radicalism. Sadly, this is what is happening in society and the state," Billah added.

Not the first time

However, this is not the first time that books and writers have faced censure in Bangladesh.

In 1994, outspoken and ultra-feminist writer Taslima Nasrin was forced to leave the country after extremists issued death threats for her novel Lojja (Shame), which criticizes women's oppression and Islam. The book was earlier banned by the High Court following Islamist protests.

Dr. Humayun Azad, a prominent academic, linguist and writer, was brutally attacked by extremists with machetes near Ekushey Book Fair in 2004. He survived the attack but died in Germany mysteriously six months later.

In 2015, police banned Nobi Mohammader 23 Bochhor ("23 Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad") by Iranian writer Ali Dashti at the fair. They also shut down its publisher's stall.

In 2016, police arrested three publishers under the internet act and shut down their publishing house, Ba-Dwip Prakashani, for publishing a book that allegedly defamed Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. Police took the action after a group of radicals staged violent street protests.

Rise of radicalism

In 2015, Avijit Roy, a prominent Bangladeshi-American writer and free thinker, was hacked to death by machete-wielding militants on his way home from the same book fair.

Roy, a strong critic of government censorship on freedom of expression, came to prominence for his scientific and somewhat atheist writings, and for founding Mukto-Mona (Free Thinkers), a Bangla blog for free thinkers, rationalists, atheists, skeptics and humanists.

He was among nine bloggers, writers and publishers murdered by Islamic militants in Bangladesh since 2013. The cases have been lingering in courts for years, while dozens of bloggers and writers, fearing for their lives, have fled the country to settle in Europe and America.

The case of Ahmed Rajib Haider, the first blogger murdered by extremists, received partial justice on April 2, 2017, when the appeal court upheld a death sentence against two militants for the crime.

For years, a war of words between radicals and secularists has raged on Bangladesh's vibrant social media and in the blogging community.

In 2013, secularists organized the Shahbagh Movement, a mass uprising in capital Dhaka which called for the trial of war criminals of the 1971 War of Independence from Pakistan and a ban on religion-based politics. In response, home-grown Islamic militants took the war against secularists to the streets by attacking and killing them.

Extremists killed about 50 people including liberal academics, members of a Shia sect, religious minorities and foreigners during this period.

In response, the government killed about 50 militants in shootouts and arrested dozens of masterminds and members of militant groups before putting them on trial.

Controversial laws

As extremists started killing atheist writers and publishers, the government arrested militants but also rebuked writers for crossing their limits.

Hundreds of allegedly anti-religious and anti-Islam blogs and online articles were erased and several blog sites were shut down. Four atheist bloggers were arrested but later released.

Two controversial laws — the Information and Communication Technology Act 2013 and Digital Security Act 2018 — were enacted, effectively muzzling freedom of speech and making criticism of religions a punishable offense.

Dozens of people, mostly writers and journalists, have been sued and arrested under these laws, which human rights groups termed as "repressive and tools for muzzling dissent."

END

Original Articles:

UCAN: Writers muzzled by Bangladesh's censorship
LCI: Writers muzzled by Bangladesh's censorship