Salman Rushdie severely wounded after stabbing, agent says
October 23, 2022
Salman Rushdie's agent has told a Spanish newspaper that the author has lost the use of an eye and movement in a hand as a result of him being stabbed multiple times at a literary event in New York state in August.
Rushdie was the subject of an Iranian fatwa way back in 1989, and was stabbed on a stage in rural New York state this summerImage: Herbert Neubauer/AFP via Getty Images
"He's lost the sight of one eye... He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso," Andrew Wylie told El Pais, in an interview published on Saturday.
Wylie described the injuries as "profound," saying "it was a brutal attack."
He said he would give no information on the writer's whereabouts other than to say he was still in hospital, but added: "He's going to live ... That's the important thing."
Rushdie was attacked as he was being introduced on stage at the Chautauqua Institution, a rural center some 55 miles (roughly 90 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo near Lake Erie that is known for its summertime lecture series.
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Life under a fatwa
The 75-year-old spent much of his life in hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death warrant, or "fatwa," against him in 1989 in response to Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses".
Khomeini seemingly considered parts the award-winning work of fiction to be blasphemous.
Rushdie had spoken in the past about how he never considered the danger to be passed. But his agent Wylie said the attack took precisely the shape of what he and his employer had feared, "a random person coming out of nowhere and attacking."
"So you can't protect against it because it's totally unexpected and illogical," he told El Pais.
The attack sparked outrage in the West and among free speech advocates but also some praise from extremists in Muslim countries like Iran and Pakistan.
'It's very very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it,' Rushdie once saidImage: Sarah Ynez-Richards/Agencia EFE/IMAGO
But he also gave a newspaper interview soon after in which he said he was "surprised" to hear the attack did not kill Rushdie. He praised Khomeini and said he did not like Rushdie or "The Satanic Verses," of which he said he had read "a few pages."
His lawyer has since warned in court that such publications could make it difficult to locate a viable jury that will not prejudge the case.
Iran's present-day Islamic regime, currently facing major protests against its supposedly religious laws, said after the stabbing that "no one has the right to accuse Iran" of complicity, saying of Rushdie: "we do not consider anyone other than himself and his supporters worthy of reproach, blame and condemnation."
A foreign ministry spokesman accused Rushdie of "crossing the red lines of 1.5 billion Muslims."
Rushdie has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times and won it once. He had continued writing even throughout his time in hiding. His fifteenth novel, "Victory City", is scheduled for publication next February.
Famous banned books over the decades
What do Galileo Galilei, Salman Rushdie and Harry Potter have in common? Books by or about them have been banned or challenged for diverse reasons.
Image: Simon & Schuster
Accused of blasphemy
Salman Rushdie has faced death threats for "The Satanic Verses," banned in several countries for its blasphemous portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad. On August 12, 2022, 24-year-old suspect Hadi Matar stabbed Rushdie multiple times just before he gave a public lecture in New York. Matar, who said Rushdie "was someone who attacked Islam," has pleaded not guilty for assault and attempted murder.
Image: Viking Press
Germany's Oscar nominee
"All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque is an unvarnished look at life on the German front during World War I, as told by 20-year-old protagonist, Paul Baumer. Seen by many critics as a key anti-war book, it was banned and burned under the Nazi regime in Germany. The first German-language film adaptation of the book is now a best international film contender for the 2023 Oscars.
Image: Ballantine Books
A book about book burning
This 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury tells of an American society of the future where books are outlawed — and burnt if discovered. In the 1990s one US school district refused for the use of the word "goddamn." It has also been challenged on the basis of "questionable themes" like censorship, repression and religion. It is often regarded as one of Bradbury's best works.
Image: Simon & Schuster
When animals shouldn't speak
George Orwell's "Animal Farm" features a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where they can be equal, free, and happy. It was a swipe at corruption in the former Soviet Union, and was banned there until the 1980s. Schools in the United Arab Emirates also banned it in 2002 for depicting a talking pig, an animal considered unclean in Islam.
Image: Mary Evans Picture Library/picture alliance
'The Book That Should Not Be Read'
Despite its global acclaim and success that saw both children and adults devouring the entire "Harry Potter" series written by British author J.K.Rowling, the books have been targeted for removal from American school libraries as they dealt with ghosts, cults and witchcraft.
Image: United Archives/Impress/picture alliance
An anti-family children's book
"And Tango makes Three" is based on the true story of two male penguins in a New York zoo who raise a chick together. Pro-family organisations and individuals in the US criticized it and called for its censorship for being "anti-ethnic" and "anti-family" to "unsuited to age group." In Singapore, where homosexuality is illegal, it was first pulled from libraries but later moved to 'adult' sections.
Image: Little Simon
Not banned in the US
In Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel "Lolita" is about a middle-aged college professor who is obsessed with a twelve-year-old daughter whom he sexually exploits. In today's plain language, he's a pedophile. Unsurprisingly, it was banned as obscene over different periods in France, England, Argentina and New Zealand. Shockingly, it wasn't banned in the United States, though it was challenged.
Image: Rowohlt Taschenbuch;
A blanket ban
His debut, the 1987 short-story collection "Stick Out Your Tongue," highlighted the brutal Chinese occupation of Tibet. The government condemned the book as “spiritual pollution” and permanently banned Ma's books from the country. Ma himself was banned from China after the publication of his 2013 novel, "The Dark Road," about the impact of the nation’s one-child policy.
Image: Picador
Airing inconvenient truths
Said to be the most-challenged book in the US from 2010 to 2019, Publishers Weekly described this YA novel as the “Native American equivalent of 'Angela’s Ashes,' a coming-of-age story so well observed that its very rootedness in one specific culture is also what lends it universality, and so emotionally honest that the humor almost always proves painful.”
Image: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Nobel laureate who will not be silenced
Lawyer Shirin Ebadi was one of Iran's first female judges. After the 1979 revolution, she was dismissed from her position. Ebadi opened a legal practice and began defending people who were being persecuted by the authorities. Despite being the first female peace prize laureate from the Islamic world, her memoir "Iran Awakening" is banned in her native country for its political content.
Image: Rider
Enforcing racial stereotypes
Despite being acknowledged as one of the best American novels ever written, Mark Twain's 1884 novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is frequently challenged in the US over its depiction of racial stereotypes. The N-word is used 242 times in the novel, leading one administrator to brand it the “most grotesque example of racism I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Image: Gemeinfrei
(In)famous ban backtrack
Famed Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei's “Dialogue on the Two World Systems” published in 1632 was originally banned by the Catholic Church for suggesting that the earth orbited the sun, and he was accused of heresy back then. It wasn't until 1822 that this ban was lifted and finally in 1992, Pope John Paul II and the the Pontifical Academy of Sciences officially declared that Galileo was right.
