Nearly two decades after she was forced to leave Kolkata amid violent protests over her writings, exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin is set to return to the city next month to attend an event, in a politically symbolic moment that the BJP government in West Bengal is projecting as the reversal of what it calls a long-standing capitulation to religious fundamentalism.

Nasrin shared a post on social media that she would be in Kolkata on August 1 to participate in an anti-fundamentalism literary event at Rabindra Sadan, where she is expected to recite poetry.

The event, organised by a group of secular and anti-fundamentalist organisations, has acquired significance beyond the literary sphere, coming months after the BJP assumed office in West Bengal and amid renewed political debate over freedom of expression, secularism and the state’s relationship with religious sensitivities.