Salman Rushdie Makes First Public Appearance Since Near-Fatal Knife Attack at PEN America Gala

AFP, published on Friday, May 19, 2023 at 06:50

For the first time since a knife attack in the United States in August which almost cost him his life, the British writer Salman Rushdie reappeared Thursday evening in public in New York during a gala of an organization for the defense of writers.

The famous novelist of Indian origin, naturalized American and who lives in New York, received an honorary award from the defense group for freedom of expression and literature, PEN America, of which he was president.

The 75-year-old intellectual, wearing glasses with a black lens on his right eye, was first photographed on the gala red carpet in the setting of the American Museum of Natural History near Central Park, in Manhattan.

His presence had not been announced and he spoke, moved, to the 700 guests of the gala.

PEN America, an association that works for freedom of expression, has never been so “important”, said Salman Rushdie, quoted in a statement from PEN America.

“Terrorism must not terrorize us. Violence must not deter us. The struggle continues,” he proclaimed in French, Spanish and English.

On August 12, he was invited to a literary conference in Chautauqua, a small cultural and bucolic town in northwestern New York State, near Great Lake Erie.

At the time of speaking, a young American of Lebanese origin suspected of being sympathizers with Shiite Iran had thrown himself on him, armed with a knife, and had stabbed him a dozen times.

Spectators and guards had then mastered the assailant immediately arrested, charged and imprisoned since pending trial.

“If it hadn’t been for these people, I certainly wouldn’t be here today. I was the target that day, but they were heroes (…) I owe them my life” , launched Salman Rushdie.

His literary agent Andrew Wylie revealed in October that he had lost the sight of one eye and the use of one hand.

In February, when his latest novel “Victory City” was released, the writer told the cultural elite magazine The New Yorker, in his first interview since his attack, that he had a lot of trouble writing and suffered from post-stress. traumatic.

Adored by the elites in the West, hated by Muslim extremists in Iran or Pakistan — some were delighted with his aggression — Salman Rushdie is an icon of freedom of expression.

He has lived since 1989 under the death threat of a fatwa issued by Iran, after the publication of his book “The Satanic Verses”.