by Grania
Jerry put up a quote from Nick Cohen’s article this morning that mentioned Bonya Ahmed and Avijiit Roy who were attacked by Islamist extremists with meat cleavers after leaving a book fair in Dhaka.
BBC World Service (radio) has an interview with her about their writing, humanism and her life since her husband’s death.
The description on the interview:
Bonya Ahmed’s life was torn apart in February when she and her husband were attacked by men with machetes on the streets of Dhaka. She was badly injured but her husband Avijit Roy died. Avijit was well-known for promoting a scientific and secular view of life and his views made him enemies in his home country Bangladesh. Despite the trauma, Bonya has vowed to continue her husband’s work and recently visited London to deliver a speech called Fighting Machetes with Pens at the British Humanist Association.
You can listen here: http://bbc.in/1Hfovwf
There is a full transcript of her speech Fighting Machetes with Pens on the British Humanist Association website.
sub
Most probably know this stuff, but just in case:
Bonya Ahmed and Avajit Roy couldn’t even live in their home country of Bangladesh because of constant threats to their lives. They lived in the US. They have a teenage daughter.
Machetes seem to be the weapon of choice amongst Islamist extremists there – Dr Roy was the second to be murdered that way, and there have been two more since. A fifth survived a few years ago.
The constitution is secular, although since it was established Islam was named the official religion as a political move. There are two main political parties and the current government is secular, but its grip on power isn’t strong enough for it to make effective moves against the Islamists.
Many of the boat people in the region are trying to escape the terrible economic conditions there. It has one of the highest population densities in the world. Imagine about 135 million living in a small US state.
Thank you, Heather, I was not aware of some of that.
I have no words, just terrible sadness at Bonya’s loss and her suffering.
Things look bad for Bangladesh. The effects of global warming will submerge a lot of the country and the people will fight for survival, migrating to other countries in increasing numbers. That can only exacerbate the religious conflicts.
Just a comment in support of Bonya and the sentiments she expressed.
sub