Paris ? The Paris mayor’s office says it has decided to provide exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin with a rent-free apartment in the French capital.

A spokesman says the writer asked the city for help after being made an honorary citizen.

The spokesman, who asked not to be named in keeping with department policy, said Saturday that she will move into a former-convent-turned-artists’ residence in February.

Nasrin left Bangladesh in 1994 after Islamic extremists accused her of insulting Islam in her writings and threatened to kill her. In March 2008 she moved to Sweden from India to seek medical assistance.

The spokesman says he doesn’t know what motivated Nasrin to ask for a place to live and write in Paris.

In Stockholm, Maria Modig, a spokeswoman for Nasrin, declined to comment about Paris’ decision, or to say whether the author was still in Sweden.