Salman Rushdie allegedly lost one eye after being assaulted: According to his agent, Salman Rushdie lost one eye and one hand after being assaulted onstage at a literary event in western New York in August.
In an interview with Spanish daily El Pais, Andrew Wylie, who represents Saul Bellow and Roberto Bolano, described Rushdie’s “severe” assault injuries.
Wylie called the author’s injuries “deep” and said that one of the author’s eyes had lost its vision. “He has three significant injuries to his neck.”
The nerves in his arm severed, leaving him to use one hand. He also has another 15 or so wounds in his torso and chest. ”
A 24-year-old New Jersey man stabbed Salman Rushdie in the neck and chest before his Chautauqua Institution speech. A retreat center about 12 miles (19 km) from Lake Erie.
The agent wouldn’t say if Rushdie took to the hospital more than two months later.
According to Wylie, the writer’s take to the hospital right after the assault left him with severe wounds. Including nerve damage in his arm, injury to his liver, and the potential loss of an eye.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran at the time, called on Muslims to murder Rushdie a few months after “The Satanic Verses” release in a fatwa, or religious decree, 33 years before the incident. Some Muslims considered the book’s references to the Prophet Muhammad disrespectful.
Rushdie, who spent nine years hiding under the protection of the British police and was born in India to a Muslim Kashmiri family, has lived with a price on his head.
The million-dollar price on Rushdie’s head continued rising.
Even after President Mohammad Khatami’s pro-reform government distanced itself from the fatwa in the late 1990s, it persisted.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Khomeini’s successor, was banned from Twitter in 2019 after claiming Salman Rushdie’s fatwa could not alter.
The person thought to have attacked the writer has pleaded not guilty to assault and attempted second-degree murder charges. He detain without bail in prison in western New York.