Salma Rushdie is back. The author of 'The Satanic Verses', a novel for which the Iranian regime sentenced him to death, reappeared Thursday night in Manhattan at the annual PEN America gala. It was his first public incursion after last August, at an event held in a town in western New York state, he was seriously injured after suffering a series of stab wounds from a fan. As a consequence, he lost vision in one eye.
His appearance at this gala, held at the renovated American Museum of Natural History, came as a surprise to the vast majority of attendees. Rushdie picked up an award for courage from the organization that defends free speech, but his presence had not been announced.
There was a whole scene before he entered the podium. The president of PEN America, Ayar Akhtar, recalled what happened that day and stressed that this experience "has transformed us" and has become a motivating element for this group. After a tribute video, the room went dark. Rushdie emerged from the darkness.
"Well, hello everyone", was his greeting, while the audience erupted in shouts of joy, while giving him a long and warm ovation. “It's very nice to be back, instead of not being back, which was also an option. I am very glad that the dice rolled in this direction.”
He took the opportunity to pay tribute to those who immediately ran to help him during the attack and subdue the assailant at the Chautauqua Institution, allowing him to stay alive.
"I was the target, but they were the heroes, the courage that day corresponded to them," he said. “Terrorism should not terrify us. Violence does not deter us. As the old Marxist used to say, the fight goes on,” he proclaimed.
His speech was brief, uncharacteristically, but he was much more garrulous during the cocktail hour, which he entered through a side door before appearing on the red carpet for the photo. It was at that moment that the guests noticed his attendance, which caused his friends to come to hug him and shake his hand.
“I thought that this was the precise moment to return to all this,” he explained to The New York Times. “It is part of the world of books, the fight against censorship and for human rights,” he added.
The night thus became a triumphant return to his world by an author who had not been intimidated by the threats from the Iranian government launched in 1989 to become a regular presence on the Big Apple's social scene.
But the attack on him was a powerful reminder of the past, and the PEN gala served to underscore a situation in which freedom of expression is threatened on many fronts, inside and outside the United States, where the ban on books in states ruled by Republicans are getting bigger and bigger.
Rushdie, who served as president of this organization, praised the efforts of this group on behalf of teachers, publishers, booksellers, and authors.
