Taslima Nasreen is banking on an appeal from Italian poets, writers and artists to Sonia Gandhi to let her live freely in India, including Calcutta.

“One thousand Italian poets, writers and artists have written to Sonia Gandhi describing my plight and requesting her permission to help me lead a free life in India…. I hope she will respond. I’m living a nomadic life,” Taslima told Metro from Paris on Friday, exactly two years after fundamentalists held the city to ransom demanding that she be thrown out.

The Bangladeshi writer has not been allowed to set foot in Calcutta since. “I still hope to return to the city. All my belongings are still there,” said Taslima, who now lives in New York.

She will head for Delhi in December before her visa expires on February 17. “I’m granted residence permit every six months on condition that I leave immediately. The permit is meaningless,” she said.

A human rights group, a literary journal and a women’s organisation held a meeting during the day demanding that Taslima be allowed to return to the city.