Author Salman Rushdie Lost Use of One Eye, One Hand in Attack, Agent Says
Salman Rushdie has lost the sight in one eye and has lost the use of one of his hands after the attack in August as the author took the stage for a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Rushdie’s agent Andrew Wylie disclosed the information about his client in an interview published over the weekend with the Spanish -language newspaper El Pais. Rushdie emerged from the attack also with three serious wounds to his neck and some 15 more knife wounds to his chest and torso. Wylie did not say whether Rushdie remains in the hospital or if he was able to return home, but offered: “He’s going to live … That’s the important thing.” Rushdie’s attacker, Hadi Matar, 24, remains in jail without bail after pleading not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges. Matar is from Fairview, New Jersey, but his parents immigrated from Lebanon. Rushdie since 1989 has been under a fatwa, calling for his death, issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini over the author’s novel “The Satanic Verses,” inspired by the life of the Prophet Muhammad and which Muslim leaders considered blasphemous. Khomeini died the same year and the fatwa has remained in effect as no one, including Iran’s current supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has withdrawn the edict. Khamenei, in 2017, said that the fatwa was still in effect. Rushdie went into hiding after the fatwa, but he had dropped much of his security concerns in recent years, and had resumed some public appearances. Iran has denied any involvement in the attack.
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