For Bangladesh, I read Revenge: A Fable by Taslima Nasrin and WOW, this was the perfect book to read after Yummah, my pick for Bahrain. Both books dive deeply into a Muslim marriage but where Yummah romanticized and exalted the ideal of a subservient wife, Revenge burnt the institution of Muslim marriage to the ground. And then took the ashes of Muslim marriage and put them in a box and dropped that box in a dormant volcano. But the volcano was so offended by the ashes of this toxic institution, it erupted and sent them into the atmosphere.

No points for guessing which book I preferred.

(It’s Revenge. I’m a feminist if that’s not obvious.)

Taslima Nasrin is also a feminist and an absolute bad ass. She is known especially for her writing about women’s oppression and criticism of Islam, and some of her books are banned in her native Bangladesh. She was born in Bangladesh in 1962 and forced into exile since 1994, with multiple fatwas calling for her death.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot of Revenge. It starts with a newly married woman who thinks she is pregnant, but her husband does not believe her and then… well, let’s just say that I felt like I myself was trapped in a suffocating Muslim marriage and felt All the Feelings. I didn’t know where the story was going but the ending delivered a very satisfying catharsis and I mentally high-fived the author.

Taslim Nasrin is on my list of favorite authors from my Read Around the World quest, and I’d recommend her works to anyone on a Read Around the World quest.