[5][6] She gained global attention by the beginning of 1990s owing to her essays and novels with feminist views and criticism of what she characterizes as all "misogynistic" religions.

[9] After living more than a decade in Europe and the United States, she moved to India in 2004 and has been staying there on a resident permit long-term, multiple-entry or 'X' visa since.

After she was physically attacked by fanatics in Hyderabad, she was forced to live under house arrest in Kolkata, and finally, she was made to leave West Bengal on 22 November 2007.

[citation needed] Leaving Bangladesh towards the end of 1994, Nasrin lived in exile in Western Europe and North America for ten years.

While living in Kolkata, Nasrin regularly contributed to Indian newspapers and magazines, including Anandabazar Patrika and Desh, and, for some time, wrote a weekly column in the Bengali version of The Statesman.

Again her criticism of Islam was met with opposition from religious fundamentalists: in June 2006, Syed Noorur Rehaman Barkati, the imam of Kolkata's Tipu Sultan Mosque, admitted offering money to anyone who "blackened [that is, publicly humiliated] Ms Nasreen's face.

"[26] In 2007, elected and serving members of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen made threats against Taslima Nasreen,[27] pledging that the fatwa against her and Salman Rushdie were to be abided by.

[29][30][31][32] On 9 August 2007, Nasrin was in Hyderabad to present the Telugu translation of one of her novels, Shodh, when she was allegedly attacked by a mob, led by legislators from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, an Indian political party.

[33][34] A week later, on 17 August, Muslim leaders in Kolkata revived an old fatwa against her, urging her to leave the country and offering an unlimited amount of money to anybody who would kill her.

A protest organised by the "All India Minority Forum" caused chaos in the city and forced the army's deployment to restore order.

"[47] In an email interview from the undisclosed safehouse, Nasrin talked about the stress caused by "this unendurable loneliness, this uncertainty and this deathly silence."

[49] Since, as she claims, "her soul lived in India," she also pledged her body to the country, by awarding it for posthumous medical use to Gana Darpan, a Kolkata-based NGO, in 2005.

[citation needed] Currently her visa received a one-year extension in 2016 and Nasreen is also seeking permanent residency in India but no decision has been taken on it by the Home Ministry.

[51] In 2015 Nasrin was threatened with death by Al Qaeda-linked extremists, and so the Center for Inquiry assisted her in travelling to the United States, where she now lives.

Her own experience of sexual abuse during adolescence and her work as a gynaecologist influenced her a great deal in writing about the treatment of women in Islam and against religion in general.

She cites Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir as influences, and, when pushed to think of one closer to home, Begum Rokeya, who lived during the time of undivided Bengal.

[55] In 1989 Nasrin began to contribute to the weekly political magazine Khaborer Kagoj, edited by Nayeemul Islam Khan, and published from Dhaka.

Her feminist views and anti-religion remarks articles succeeded in drawing broad attention, and she shocked the religious and conservative society of Bangladesh by her radical comments and suggestions.

[citation needed] Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood, 2002), the first volume of her memoir, was banned by the Bangladeshi government in 1999 for "reckless comments" against Islam and the prophet Mohammad.

Under pressure from Indian Muslim activists, the book, which was published in West Bengal as Dwikhandita, was banned there also; some 3,000 copies were seized immediately.

[citation needed] Steve Lacy, the jazz soprano saxophonist, met Nasrin in 1996 and collaborated with her on an adaptation of her poetry to music.

Because of "obnoxious, false and ludicrous" comments in Ka, "written with the 'intention to injure the reputation of the plaintiff'", Syed Shamsul Haq, Bangladeshi poet and novelist, filed a defamation suit against Nasrin in 2003.

[72] A West Bengali poet, Hasmat Jalal, did the same; his suit led to the High Court banning the book, which was published in India as Dwikhondito.

[76] Recently she was supported and defended by author Mahasweta Devi, poet Joy Goswami, and artist Paritosh Sen.[77] In India, noted writers Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad, and others defended her when she was under house arrest in Delhi in 2007, and co-signed a statement calling on the Indian government to grant her permanent residency in India or, should she ask for it, citizenship.

[80] In a 2019 tweet, she stated on Twitter that "Men and women who have bad genes with genetic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer etc should not produce children.