New Delhi, India - A West Bengal has lifted a ban on a book by an exiled Bangladeshi writer two years after the state government banned it for allegedly offending Muslims, newspapers reported on Friday.
West Bengal Government banned the book, Dwikhandito, or "Split Into Two," by Taslima Nasrin in 2003, saying its harsh take on how women are treated under Islam offended Muslims and could cause unrest in the state, which borders Bangladesh.
The book ban also came after an Indian poet, Syed Hasmat Jalal, sued Nasrin for allegedly making up a sexual relationship between them that she details in her book.
But the Calcutta High Court lifted the ban on Thursday, saying the book did not "deliberately outrage the religious feelings of any community," The Statesman newspaper reported.
The court said the writer, without naming any religion, had made general observations in her book that religion was the root of all social ills and that she had never intended to specifically insult Islam, The Statesman said.
The 395-page book was also banned in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where it was published under the title "Ka," after Islamic fundamentalists objected.
Nasrin fled her native country in 1994 after her first book, "Lajja," or "Shame," also about women living under Islam, angered Muslim hard-liners who threatened to kill her.