‘Stand with Salman’ public event in show of solidarity with author  

PEN America, in a show of solidarity with author Salman Rushdie, has organised a public event, “Stand with Salman” on Friday in New York.

Hundreds of writers will gather to do a public reading of Salman Rushdie’s works, mirroring a similar event that took place after Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against him was issued in 1989.  

Famous authors include the likes of Paul Auster, Tina Brown, Kiran Desai, Amanda Foreman, AM Homes, Siri Hustvedt, Hari Kunzru and Gay Talese will be among those taking part in Stand with Salman. 

The event takes place exactly a week after the 75-year-old Rushdie was stabbed during an event at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. The writers will gather on the steps of the New York Public Library on Friday morning. 

Rushdie sustained severe injuries and is recovering in hospital. According to his agent Andrew Wylie, he had 10 knife wounds which resulted in a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye.

In a statement, Rushdie’s son Zafar said the novelist was able to talk and that “his usual feisty and defiant sense of humor remains intact”.  

Stand with Salman is being organised by PEN America, the New York Public Library, Rushdie’s publisher Penguin Random House, and House of SpeakEasy. PEN America said those gathering would “read from selected texts from Rushdie’s body of work”. 

The event will be live streamed, and PEN America is asking those unable to attend to show their support by hosting a public reading of Rushdie’s work in their own community.

The event is modelled on a public reading of The Satanic Verses held a few days after the fatwa against Rushdie was announced in 1989, which was attended by more than 3,000 people. 

The fatwa was issued by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in response to the publication of The Satanic Verses. Although the Iranian regime has since sought to distance itself from the fatwa, the price on Rushdie’s head was increased in recent years to more than US$3 million (about RM13.42 million). 

Rushdie recently said he believed his life was “very normal again”. He was at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about the importance of America giving asylum to exiled writers, and he had also recently signed a letter expressing “grave concerns about the rapidly worsening situation for human rights in India”. 

The man accused of attacking Rushdie, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault. – The Vibes, August 18, 2022