PTI

New Delhi, Jan 25: France has decided to invite controversial Bangladesh author Taslima Nasreen to Paris to receive its prestigious award after India stalled its plans to confer the honour on her here during the visit of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy has directed that Nasreen be invited to France so that the 'Prix Simone de Beauvoir' award ''may be given to her officially,'' the French Embassy said in new Delhi on Friday.

It, however, did not specify dates for presentation of the award named after famous French author Beauvoir.

France expects India to take ''all measures'' to facilitate her trip to the European country to receive the award which the Bangladeshi author has bagged for her writings in support of women's rights.

''France is grateful to the Indian authorities for all measures that they may kindly take to facilitate Ms Nasreen's journey to France,'' the Embassy said in a statement.

France announced the award on January nine and had planned to give the honour to her during Sarkozy's two-day visit beginning on Saturday.

India, however, conveyed to France its opposition to the move, citing the fear of repercussions in view of recent violence over Nasreen's writings in Kolkata.

Widespread violence was witnessed in Kolkata on November 21 after some radical Islamists demanded that she be thrown out of the country for allegedly hurting the sentiments of Muslims through her writings.

As a result, she was shifted out of West Bengal and has since been kept in virtual confinement at some undisclosed place in Delhi.

Kolkata: Taslima won't Travel to France to Collect Award
 
IANS
 
Kolkata: Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, living in the Indian capital under security after threats from Islamic hardliners, does not want to go to France to receive the Prix Simone de Beauvoir award as the ceremony is already over.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose two-day visit to India ends on Saturday, had urged New Delhi to let Nasreen travel to Paris.

"I appreciate the kind gesture of France and thank them for the proposal. But since the award function was held January 9 at Couvent des cordeliers in Paris, which I missed, there is not much meaning now going all the way to Paris to collect the certificate," Nasreen told IANS over telephone.

"Since the certificate could not be handed over to me in Delhi, which would have made me very happy, I have requested them to courier it to my home in Kolkata. They have agreed," Nasreen said from a safe house where she has been put up by the Indian government.

"I want to go to my home Kolkata instead where my entire world awaits me," Nasreen said.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the French embassy said: "The President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, has asked that Taslima Nasreen be invited to France so that Prix Simone de Beauvoir, which has been awarded to her, may be given to her officially."

It added that France was "grateful to the Indian authorities for all measures that they may kindly take to facilitate Nasreen's journey to France".

While the author wanted to receive the award from Sarkozy during his India visit January 25-26, New Delhi was not eager to face a possible security problem and the plan was dropped.

The writer had been living in Kolkata after staying in Europe for a while since she had to flee Bangladesh following a 'fatwa' over alleged blasphemous remarks in one of her books.

Nasreen was distraught at not being able to meet Sarkozy and receive the award from him.

She earlier told IANS that she really wanted to receive the award from the French president since "I attach a lot of value to this award.

"I don't think there is any reason for me to remain in confinement like this," said the controversial author.

Although there is a campaign to bring the writer back to Kolkata, her adopted home, the Indian government has so far remained unmoved.

The 45-year-old Nasreen said: "I am only breathing. I don't think I am alive like you are. Can anybody live like this? It was beyond my imagination that in a secular democracy like India, such a thing could happen to a writer."

Under threat, on November 30, 2007 Nasreen had agreed to expunge controversial portions from Dwikhandita (Split in Two), one of the volumes in her autobiography.

Nasreen's most recent award is named after Simone de Beauvoir, the noted French philosopher, novelist, essayist and feminist whose two-volume treatise "Le deuxième sexe" or "The Second Sex", published in 1949, took the world by storm.