Exposition
Ahmad Salman Rushdie was born in 1947, on 19 June, to a Kashmiri parent in Mumbai (Bombay at that time), India. His father, Anis Ahmed Rushdie, was lawyer who turned businessman later on in his career, while his mother was a teacher. After getting his preliminary education in India, he finalized his education in England by getting a bachelor’s degree in Art of History. He was also a Rugby player in his college days.
A Cluster of Marriages
Rushdie has boarded the marriage train four times. In 1976, he married his first wife, Clarissa Luard– a lecturer officer of Arts Council in Britain–, and fathered a son named Zafar, in 1979. The marriage lasted for 11 years before Rushdie called it a quit. After breaking his first marriage, he had had an affair with an Australian writer Robyn Davidson. He married for the second time in 1988; this time it was American writer Marianne Wiggins. He kept himself bounded to this marriage for five years and called off the marriage in 1993. During his second marriage tenure, he wrote an infamous work of diction which made him an enemy to the Muslim Community (it will be discussed later on). He produced another son named Milan in 1997 from his wife, Elizabeth West, a british author and journalist, to whom he remained bounded for about seven years i.e from 1997 to 2004.
He married for the last time in 2004 to Padma Lakshmi, an Indian American actress and T.V shows host. The marriage was ended divorce in 2007.
Start of a Doomed Career
His career started with his 1975’s novel Grimus which was a science fiction. This novel did not receive much praise from he critics and it went unnoticed. In 1981, he wrote a novel by the name Midnight’s Children that flared up his fame and was received well by the critics. His Midnight’s Children won him the Booker Prize in the same year, 1981. He wrote another critical novel in 1983 by he name Shame which was based on Pakistan’s political turmoil in 1980s. This novel of his was also a success as it was included in the best postcolonial literature works.
Rushdie was enjoying all this fame while surreptitiously writing a novel which altered the course of his career and his life. In 1988, he wrote The Satanic Verse, a novel which hit the religious sensitivities of Muslim community. He received a humongous amount of criticism from different leaders of the Muslim countries.
A Damning and Crucial Edict
Upon release, The Satanic Verse was banned in different countries. Total of 13 countries, which ere Muslims, banned this novel. All the leaders of Muslim countries were seething with anger and there were protests in Muslim countries against such sacrilege of their faith. During all this commotion, a fatwa (an edict that is given by an expert interpreter of the religious matters) was issued on 14 February, 1989 by none other than Ayatollah Ruhoollah Musavi Khomeni, the Supreme Leader of Islamic Republic of Iran and the main figure of 1979’s Iranian Revolution. In his edict the Ayatollah Khomeni called upon the muslims of the world to execute Salman Rushdie for his audacity to exploit the right of freedom of speech and disrespect Muslim values. Ayatollah Khomeni also added that whoever supported in publication and propagation of this novel must also be dragged to the court and be executed.
Aftermath of the Edict
The British government provided Salman Rushdie a security team. Rushdie went to hiding for almost a decade after the edict was issued. Iran placed a 2.5 million$ bounty on Rushdie’s head which was increased upto 3.3 million$ as of 2020. In 2005, the current Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali khamenei, reiterated the fatwa, also in 2019, when he was asked about the status of the fatwa given in 1989, he called it ‘irrevocable’ pointing that it was still intact. United Kingdom broke diplomatic ties with Iran and other Scandinavian and European countries also condemned the fatwa. While on the other hand, Muslim countries lauded this effort of Ayatollah Khomeni and praised the fatwa.
Assassination of Hitoshi Igarashi
On July 13, 1991, the Japanese translator of the novel, Hitoshi Igarashi, was found dead in his apartment. He was stabbed to death in his apartment room. Similarly, William Nygaard, who translated the novel into Norwegian language, was shot in back three times in Oslo on 11 October, 1993, although he survived.
Aziz Nesin narrowly escaped the assassination attempt. Aziz Nesin had translated the novel into Turkish language in 1993. Two bombs were planted to kill him but he survived.
Is Chautauqua’s Appearance Rushdie’s Last?
On 12 August, 2022, Salman Rushdie was attending a ceremony of prestigious writers and aspirants in Chautauqua Institute, New York, when he was attacked by an assailant while on stage. The attacker is identified as Hadi Matar, a New York resident, who stabbed Rushdie several times. He inflicted wounds on his neck and abdomen. According to he latest report of BBC, Rushdie’s agent informed that he was in danger, if he lives, he would lose one of his eyes, the wounds have dealt a great damage to his liver and right arm’s nerves.
Conclusion
Rushdie enjoyed a great deal of fame before writing The Satanic Verses novel. Most of the people declare him wrong as freedom of speech is allowed as long as one does not hit religious or sensitive emotions of other human beings. After writing his infamous novel, he lived a life of shame and fear. One instance of such fear is when he cancelled a scheduled event in India in 2012 because he pre-empted a news of plot of his murder. Now he is fighting for his life in a hospital of Erie, Pennsylvania where he has gone a surgery.
