Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie was in good spirts for his first in-person public appearance on Friday since he was repeatedly stabbed in an attack by an Islamic extremist last August.
Addressing the annual dinner benefit of PEN America, the nonprofit that advances free expression in literature and over which he once presided, Rushdie said: “I feel great. I have a long association with PEN America and I’m just happy to be amongst writers and book people.” Rushdie’s speech was first reported by the Associated Press.
While preparing to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York in August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed in the back and abdomen. He was transported to a hospital and underwent surgery for several hours in a nearby trauma center, and subsequently went on a ventilator during recovery. Police arrested Hadi Matar, who had previously posted on social media in support of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Shia extremism, in connection with the assassination attempt.
Rushdie has been a target of Islamic fundamentalists since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — then the dictator of the Iranian regime — issued a fatwa calling for the author to be killed in 1989. He had only recently begun appearing in public without an extensive security detail when he was stabbed in August.
His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, was published in 1988, and included what was deemed by some to be an unflattering and blasphemous portrayal of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. One religious foundation in Iran had offered a bounty on Rushdie’s head of over $3 million.
After the attack, an Iranian government official blamed Salman Rushdie and “his supporters” for the stabbing and claimed Iran was not responsible. In an interview with the New York Post at the time, Matar said: “I respect the ayatollah. I think he’s a great person.”
Both the prosecution and defense in the Matar case, which have been collecting and sifting through evidence, told Spectrum Local News in March that they hope to go to trial in the fall.
Since his near-death experience, Rushdie has kept a relatively low profile with the press, interacting with fans on Twitter and through other more private avenues. In February, Rushdie on social media condemned the publisher Puffin and the estate of cherished children’s book author Roald Dahl for posthumously bowdlerizing the author’s work.
“Roald Dahl was no angel, but this is absurd censorship,” Rushdie, who has long fought against censorship in writing, tweeted. “Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.”