Michèle Causse was a French author and lesbian theorist. She was one of my best friends. She always contacted me but I never got much time to contact her. When finally I decided to email her, I heard that she committed assisted suicide. She went to Switzerland to do it, she did it to protest against France for not legalizing euthanasia or the right to die. Michèle was vocal for the right to live as well as the right to die. She gave her life to show her support for euthanasia. Not everyone can do it.
I support euthanasia but Michèle’s suicide brings tears to my eyes. Wish I could stop her from having that bitter barbiturate. Wish I could tell her, ‘no, not now’. It is so hard to say goodbye to those extra ordinary people who contribute a lot to change the world and whose brains are still working well. I am dedicating this blog to Michèle Causse, a great human being, who died for a great cause. I salute her with great respect.
Let’s read some of her words that she wrote for me.
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:22:31 +0200
Subject: France cultureDear
Thank you again, I may be French but I feel in tune with your ” radical”
approach ( I will never compromise, I will never be silent). And also, as a
WRITER, I do understand how your Bengali language is missing.I felt the same
way while living in Tunisia, in Rome, in the Caraibs, in New York, migrant
in Canada. I went crazy at times, shouting in French on some lonely beach of
Florida where sharks used to …swim. Taslima you are brave and ” poetry” is
a word full of meaning when you talk, even early in the morning, defending
strongly “laicite”. Please, remember me, I am yours.We feminists shall keep
you alive and (possibly)well. MichèleI feel a visceral( and rational ) reject of all religions, as you
know.unfortunately we know how women get trapped into it.While male priests
rape their children.Michèle CAUSSE
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:45:28 +0200
Subject: “Precious”
Dearest
On the 8th of March it was so great to see you on tv ! The only gratifying
smile of a difficult feminist moment.
While women in Toulouse were marching in the streets to ask for nights
without violence , they were immediately attacked by the police: those who
were supposed to protect them viciously battered them but were finally
obliged to get back to their police station. There, all girls united until
an arrested young woman was freed. The head of a woman association had a
broken finger!
This is just a story from a small province town.Imagine the rest!
To see you in New Delhi gave us the happiness you must feel in spite of he
precarious state of your staying there. When I read that maybe you will not
be able to stay after August, desperation got over me.I feel so strongly
your need for flavors, odours, colours.For a language which has its
fragrance.
Your sentence:”men get 364 days of the year and the only day women have in
their favour will be a day in which they will be persecuted as usual.” Oh
dear, you could not be more exact.It seems that 8th of March infuriates men
in a particular way.My expectations were greater in the 70’and I will never
have theses feelings again.Except when I hear you because you are the voice
of these years! The genuine and intelligent fury we had, the concepts we
battled against:” We spit on Hegel” etc etc…
Dear Tas my lima your MichèleMICHÈLE CAUSSE
Date: Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:46:08 +0200
Subject: New(?) yearMy very dear,
hope this year will bring you back to the land you need
and which needs you.
When I have the blues I go to your site and I look at the pictures of all your friends,
all your travels, all your prizes. And I feel much better. You deserve all
you have and will have. Yours.Timidly. Michèle
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:09:49 +0200
Subject: You yesterdayMaybe you looked yesterday at the Public Senat transmission which was an
homage to you ( in the presence of ni putes ni soumises and Caroline Fourest
and two women in politics).They were appalled at your situation and
certainly ashamed for the politics which do not permit you to lead a proper
life .At least I know now that you are in France and maybe less unhappy than
somewhere else. We saw images of Afghan women who burned themselves to death
rather than enter a forced marriage and other atrocities.The only moment of
real feminism in action was in Africa where young women called tantines
teach younger men and women some kind of rudimental sexuality;for instance:
don’t let your mother flatten your breasts!!!! At any step we meet different
horrors which condemn women to lead a pariah existence. I thought of you the
whole evening, as I do so often.Thanking you in my heart for being who you
are…Please stay with us.We will not let them trample you.I kiss you
motherly…if I mayI am still in Toulouse. Wish to see you for the festival.
Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:56:05 +0200
Subject: Hope
Hope you are now safely in France. Please, stay with us for a while.I think
of you with pain when I see the conditions of Bangladeshi fighting
desperately against flood and becoming climatic refugees without knowing
where to go, how to eat and live.What will they become?They are so proud and
brave.Their earth, their rice being literally ruined by the salt of the sea.
And your own sadness, your own condition .Go and see this terrible
film: Slumdog millionaire. It might remind you that, maybe, it is better not
to be in India….in spite of nostalgia…
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:09:49 +0200
Where are you ???? The newspapers say you are in India. Or back to Sweden?
PLEASE, let us know you are OK and writing as much as your health and the
Bangladesh disaster permit. We are under the Pope’s presence in France and
it is very difficult to feel the way we did in the seventies…I wish I
could in some way give you positive news. But Time has not come yet. I think
of you and dream about another India. Michèle
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 17:31:49 +0200
On internet I read all your interviews to the French newspapers.I was
flabbergasted! So happy. You were so radical, so much to the point.I had not
read anything like that since 197O. I wish I were given the opportunity to
say what you flaunted to the faces of the interviewers.I wrote a commentary
to l’Express.Believe me, only you can make declarations like that. It looks
as if you were not afraid of anything and were the only person in the world
who cannot care less about the consequences of her brave and rare nude
truth. I share everything you say.Thank you. We would be orphans and
voiceless without you. I kiss your bravery.
Michèle CAUSSE
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 11:22:24 +0200
Subject: HurrahA friend awoke me early this morning to tell me you were speaking on the
radio. Finally, at last, I heard you, your small voice saying what had to be
said and heard .But do they hear ? Do they feel the way you do the incoming
threat? I am sorry to know you are not happy in Europe and yet I understand
so well. Your voice is most precious to these Indian women who are becoming
so eager to free themselves, with their pink saris and wood batons. You
belong to them, they belong to you.Sisters. I kiss you tenderly and as usual
admiratively. Michèle
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:20:51 +0200
Darling you,
Taslima I am afraid to tell you what I think as an ex immigrate to Canada. When a country like India does not want you anymore except in conditions which are not even decent for an animal, one must go away,one must choose one=B9s own life ,even if ,apparently, this life is not conform to your choice ( staying in Calcutta). Believe me, if you decide to go away, to immigrate, you will come back to India as a hero.You must not accept your present condition because they will not change it. On the contrary, they may become sterner. I have a pessimistic view about men wanting any good to women.
Even among the best intellectuals. Don’t be stubborn in this precise moment,be clever: you go away and you wait for some time. According to my own experience:some day you will be back to your own place, with great peace and honour. When you least expect it. If you carry on this day by day suicide and agony, we lose you and you lose yourself. Humanity ( I will not say mankind) will miss you too much. Loneliness is not a strength. You must form an alliance with those who share your fate,in spite of differences.You must smile again, and write and walk peacefully in places which will enjoy and help your creativity.
There is in the world a conjuncture which is not good at all. Women in the eastern countries are more and more severely constrained and ill-treated.
You can write for yourself and for them only if you come to a country. I know how desperate one is far from one’s country .But you are in no country at all in this moment. You must see your friends and people who support you. Listen to them ,to their advices. Let them pamper you.This sad period has to come to an end. I kiss you and please, don’t think I write like a vanquished person.On the contrary.Be very subtle.Pretend you want to go away.And be happy if they let you go away!!!!I send you the green of my field so that light come into your room. Love
Date: Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:13:21 +0200
Dearest among dears,This is the text, very short, I am sending to the institutions you note.Please let us know your present condition. It is hard to imagine you in the same place!!! We love you.
Honour yourself by honouring the dignity and talent of the internationally known and highly praised poet Taslima Nasreen.
French Writer Michèle Causse
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:51:12 +0200
Subject: FW: les infos de France Terre d’Asile no 2
-At least an extension, at least they are ashamed, but what about
your freedom??? Living where you want ? Can one feel really relieved? With
all my heart. Michèle
Let’s support euthanasia. Let’s make euthanasia legal. Let’s make Michèle’s dream come true.
