Flames engulf the office of the Prothom Alo newspaper after it was torched by protesters in Dhaka. (AP) Exiled Bangladeshi writer and activist Taslima Nasrin has claimed that the current political developments in her home country are the result of a discontent that has been burning for a long time.
‘Burning in the fire of discontent’
According to Nasrin, who has been living in India since 2004, the conflict in Bangladesh is not between the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party or between ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and the head of the interim government Muhammad Yunus.
“The country has long been burning in the fire of discontent, but this is not because of the conflict between the Awami League and the BNP, not because of the conflict between Hasina and Yunus, not because of the conflict between Chhayanaut/Udichi and miscreants, and not because of a conflict between Hindus and Muslims,” Nasrin said in a post on X.
Conflict between two ideologies
Nasrin pointed out that Bangladesh was seeing the conflict between those who want to move forward and those who want to move backward, an apparent reference to a growing pro-Pakistan shift in the country, which in 1971 fought a bloody war to gain independence from Islamabad.
“The true conflict is between two ideologies—between secularism and religious fanaticism; it is a struggle between rationalism and fundamentalism, between truth and falsehood, between light and darkness, between progressivism and reactionism, between intelligence and ignorance, between civilization and barbarism, between humanity and savagery, between free thought and blindness,” Nasrin said.
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“It is a conflict between two kinds of people: those who want to move forward and those who want to move backward.”
The country has long been burning in the fire of discontent, but this is not because of the conflict between the Awami League and the BNP, not because of the conflict between Hasina and Yunus, not because of the conflict between Chhayanaut/Udichi and miscreants, and not because…
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) December 24, 2025
The interim government, led by Yunus, which came to power in August 2024 after the student-led protests forced Hasina to flee the country, has been accused of getting closer to Pakistan.
The interim government, however, says it is pursuing a “balanced foreign policy” aimed at regional stability and economic necessity rather than favouring any specific nation.
