New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) The English translation of slain Indian author Sushmita Bandyopadhyay’s Bengali memoir, “Mullah Omar, Taliban O Ami”, has hit the stands, announced Westland Books on Wednesday.
Originally published in 2000, “The Taliban and I”, translated by award-winning translator Arunava Sinha, details Bandyopadhyay’s horrific encounter with the Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1980s.
Bandyopadhyay, who was married to an Afghan businessman Jaanbaz Khan in Calcutta, now Kolkata, in 1988 and moved to Afghanistan soon afterwards, was allegedly shot dead by Talibani terrorists in 2013. She was 49.
“I was both stunned and saddened by Susmita Bandyopadhyay’s life as she has written about it in this book. It’s a timely reminder of just how courageous a woman can be in the face of oppression,” said Sinha.
The Taliban tried to subject her to the oppressive rules they had set for Afghan women but she rebelled, and in the 1990s, she risked her life to escape their clutches and return to Kolkata.
She had returned to India in 1994 with her husband but chose to go back to Afghanistan in May 2013.
The same year, on the fateful day of September 4, she was dragged out of her house by the Taliban and shot dead in presence of her family members.
Her first book ‘Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou’ (A Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife), published in 1997, was made into a Bollywood movie “Escape from Taliban” (2003), starring Manisha Koirala.
According to the publishers, “The Taliban and I” is “suspenseful, gut-wrenching, and deeply moving”.
“It’s a gusty account of a woman who reasserted her identity in a country where women cannot go out of their homes unaccompanied. In a hostile environment, she came into her own, turning from a newly-wed bride into a primary healthcare worker, helping the women around her, while the Taliban continued to persecute her with single-minded determination,” said Minakshi Thakur, publisher Eka of Westland Books.
The book, priced at Rs 250, is currently available for sale across online and offline stores. PTI MG RB RB RB
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.