Bengali backlash against novel about immigrant experience

Columnist Johann Hari denounces protests by members of the Bangladeshi community against a planned film adaptation of Monica Ali's novel, 'Brick Lane', named after the street of the same name in London's East End. The novel tells the story of an 18-year-old Bangladeshi woman's arranged marriage. "Ali's crime has been to challenge the supremacy of Bengali men by articulating the secret experiences of Bengali women. I have lived among (and loved) British Asian communities all my life - and I can attest to its veracity. More importantly, British-Bangladeshi women are seeing it for themselves: according to the Brick Lane bookshop, thousands of women hidden behind veils are buying the Bengali language version. ... This is not new. Over the past few years, there has been a cascade of protests by ultra-conservatives within Europe's immigrant communities trying to silence women from their own neighbourhoods calling for change."

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