Overview
- Nasreen landed at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on Friday and was greeted by supporters as she arrived for a two-day visit to Kolkata.
- She is scheduled to appear at an anti‑fundamentalism literary programme at Rabindra Sadan on August 1 where Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay are expected to attend.
- Nasreen was forced out of Kolkata in November 2007 after violent protests over portions of her memoir Dwikhandito and has lived in long term exile since fleeing Bangladesh in 1994 following threats over her novel Lajja.
- The writer says she accepted an invitation from Secular Mission and credited West Bengal’s security arrangements for making the visit possible while she rejected claims that the BJP directly organised her return.
- Her homecoming has taken on political weight because the BJP presents it as an affirmation of free speech, critics point to the 2007 law‑and‑order rationale for her removal, and the visit could shape future debates and security decisions around dissent in the state.