In August, the author was going to speak at a conference in the United States when a man burst onto the stage and stabbed him multiple times. The attack occurred 33 years after the publication of “The Satanic Verses”.
Stabbed in August in the United States, British writer Salman Rushdie has since lost the sight in one eye and the use of one hand, among other serious consequences, his agent told the Spanish newspaper El País in an article published this Saturday (10/22/2022)
“His wounds were deep, but he also lost the sight of one eye. He had three serious neck injuries. One of his hands was disabled because the nerves in his arm were severed. And he has about 15 more wounds on his chest and torso,” he said.
“It was a brutal attack. I cannot give any information about his whereabouts. He is going to live. That’s the most important thing,” he stressed.
On August 12, Rushdie was about to speak at a conference in upstate New York when a man burst onto the stage and stabbed him multiple times, most notably in the neck and abdomen.
The author of The Satanic Verses was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital and had to be placed briefly on a ventilator before his condition improved.
The main suspect, Hadi Matar, a then 24-year-old Lebanese American, was arrested immediately after the incident and pleaded not guilty at his trial which began in mid-August.
The attack came 33 years after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s supreme leader, issued a fatwa (religious edict) in which he called on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie following the publication of The Satanic Verses.
This is because some Muslims considered passages in the novel about the Prophet Muhammad to be blasphemous.