The Chilling of Literary Freedom

Zainab Priya Dala has been held in a psychiatric institution because she has expressed a literary opinion that some people disagree with. This is after having been assaulted for holding these same opinions. I find that absolutely appalling.

In a time where here, in the US, much is being made of "religious freedom" and the desire of people of any given faith to exercise their path as seems clear enough to themselves, this is why I demur with a funny old grouse--"but not to impose the same on others." As the standards of some religious group appears to be being imposed on the literary preference of ZP Dala and her vocal expression of same.

The idea of a fatwa against writers like Salman Rushdie, and the actual violence wrought upon freethinking bloggers like Avjit Roy and Washiqur Rahman, is sickening enough. The idea that people who seek to read, know, understand, and form their own opinions, are also to be extravagantly punished so as to discourage the free discourse of ideas is another level of tyranny, one, I would have to insist, is a far more constraining regulation than any command to "coexist" or show toleration.

My thoughts are with Ms. Dala and her family, and I urge the South African authorities to intercede on her behalf.