I was well acquainted with the Calcutta literary circle since I was 17, when I lived in Bangladesh and published and edited a little magazine called 'Sejuti,' for which young poets from both Bengals wrote. If you look at my life, there is no question of using anyone for anything. I have only got banned, blacklisted and banished.

Governmental defense of any theology necessarily weakens the legitimacy of both the government and the theology.

I strongly believe that no one can be a true feminist without being an atheist. All religions are anti-women. No one can be pro-woman while supporting anti-woman dogmas.

Religious fundamentalists in Bangladesh have always argued for a ban on my books.

I was born in a middle class Muslim family, in a small town called Myonenningh in a northern part of Bangladesh in 1962. My father is a qualified physician; my mother is a housewife. I have two elder brothers and one younger sister. All of them received a liberal education in schools and colleges.

Nature says women are human beings, men have made religions to deny it. Nature says women are human beings, men cry out no!

It is unfair to label me anti-Islam. I am an atheist and a secular humanist.