Taslima Nasrin won the 2004 UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. She was a nominee this year for the Nobel Peace Prize. She has also received the European Parliaments' Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the Kurt Tucolsky Award from Swedish PEN.

Nasrin is a doctor who writes poetry, novels, and articles--some 28 books in Bengali, translated into another 20 languages.

She began receiving public recognition in the 80s for her strong portrayals of the oppression of women in some Asian countries. Although fatwas have been issued against her, she continues her fight for a new civil code based on gender equality, and for secular education. Forced to leave her country, repeatedly threatened by her government and fundamentalist mobs, she lives in exile in Sweden.