Press. voanews.com
I don’t know how I can express myself, as feelings become obtuse from
fear. Soldiers of darkness caught me like an animal and butchered me in dreams.
You know the feelings of dreaming are like reality. It is midnight in my
Bangladesh. Tuhin Das is from Bangladesh, but he lives now in exile. Forced to
leave his home in April 2016, Tuhin Das sought refuge at City of Asylum
Pittsburgh, a sanctuary for endangered writers.
“I left my country in an extreme situation and I came here not for only
security," he said. "I came here for freedom, freedom of expression,
freedom of writing and freedom for living a certain way.” Born and raised in
Barisal, Bangladesh, Tuhin Das loved to read poems. Tuhin began writing his own
poems when he was in seventh grade. Some of his works were featured in a local
children’s magazine.
“Basically, I write poetry because that is my voice, my soul voice. I
wrote a few rhymes, like children(’s) poetry," he said. "They were
published in children’s magazines.” Tuhin Das also started writing other
things, like short stories. However, in the 1980s things changed in his
country. A military dictator took control and established Islamic rule. Tuhin
Das says he began to write more serious articles as a witness to the rise of
fundamentalism.
“When I started writing articles, basically our community in Bangladesh
was ninety-four percent Muslims and they did not think [writing] is good
because some feelings hurt them," he remembers. "I wrote against war
crimes, some war criminals in our country, and they are still in our country
and they are doing their job. They were never condemned, so for that, we wrote
against them.”
However, freedom of expression came at a cost for Tuhin Das. “Right now
there are local collaborators of 1971, and right now in our country there are a
lot of their supporters," he said. "So, when we wrote against them
and the supporters, sometimes online, they personally threatened us.”
To save his own life, Tuhin Das left Bangladesh. Since 2013, Das has
been the target of fundamentalist groups who have murdered freethinking
bloggers, writers and editors. In Bangladesh, writers are being persecuted
under the country’s Information and Technology Communication Law. Instead of
protecting Tuhin, the police collected and searched his writings for
anti-Islamic statements to use against him.
City of Asylum Pittsburgh has given exiled writer Tuhin Das a refuge. “I
think a lot of bad things have happened in our country and already 16 writers
are murdered by the extremists so, right now, I am feeling safe here," he
said." I am writing freely. Right now, I am writing a novel about (the)
social structure of my country, basically the Islamization of my country.”
Tuhin Das appreciates the community support he is receiving. He joined
the Greater Pittsburgh Literary Society where he is learning the English
language and about American culture.
His work has continued to appear in Bangladesh. In his native language,
Bengali, Das has authored seven poetry books. He has served as editor of
several literary magazines, written short stories and published columns in his
home country. He says his proudest accomplishment is the founding of a popular
magazine called, The Wild.
However, Tuhin Das says he misses his Bangladeshi home and hopes one day
to return there. “I love my country and also my family, my parents and my
nephew and my sisters and a lot of friends," he said. "I think the
situation of my country will be good and I will come back to my country. I hope
that.”
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