What a remarkable story.
Taslima Nasrin was questioning the koran and her faith from an early age. Â When growing up and asking a lot of questions about allah, her mother told her that if she said any more bad things about allah her tongue would fall off. Â Taslima said she then locked herself in the bathroom, looked in the mirror and said “Allah is a son of a bitch, allah is the son of a dog, allah is the son of a pig”. Â A nervous wait, but her tongue did not fall off.
She continued to struggle with the religion.  Finally realising that she was an atheist.  She was thrown out of her home country, Bangladesh, has received numerous death threats and is homeless.
During her talk, there were security guards around the stage. Â I saw them step in front of people as they walked towards the stage. Â It brought home just how serious the threats are.
Her story was moving and amazing.  She continues to challenge and talk about the oppression  of muslim women.  Taslima finished her tale by saying she has no home, she is homeless.  It is clear that Taslima wants to go home, back to her native lands.  Her home now is the love she gets from other women, free thinkers and secularists.
I was moved to tears and the auditorium errupted into a huge round of applause and a standing ovation.  I came away from it knowing that islam has some major flaws in its sacred text.  No matter how much they try to say otherwise, it was devised by a man who was only concerned with is personal sexual satisfaction and guarded his many wives with much jealousy.
It needs to be stopped.