Novelist Salman Rushdie says freedom of speech is under “real assault” around the world.
The Indian-born British-American author was awarded the Liberatum Cultural Honour in London on Wednesday at a ceremony running under the theme “Freedom of Expression”.
“I live in America and I never thought that there would be such an assault on free speech, coming from the authorities in the land of the First Amendment,” Rushdie told Reuters in an interview shortly before taking to the stage.
“The fact that they have been attacking journalists, comedians, writers, artists, intellectuals for expressing dissenting opinions shows what they think of free speech,” Rushdie said. “There’s a big struggle. I have to say that there’s quite a good fight back there. For instance, all these books being banned from libraries, there’s a lot of challenges to those. And in many cases the challenges are successful.”
The 79-year-old writer warned of a “difficult time in many parts of the world”.
“My country of origin is India and there’s a real assault on liberty of expression there as well. I think it’s a moment when we have to gird our loins and fight a fight that I thought we’d won. And it turns out we didn’t win it. We just won it for a while.”
The author has faced death threats since the publication of his fourth novel, “The Satanic Verses,” in 1988, which was banned in many countries and which Iran’s then supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini denounced as blasphemous, leading to a call for Rushdie’s death, an edict known as a fatwa.
In 2022 Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed onstage at a New York arts institute appearance, which left him blind in one eye and affected the use of one of his hands.
“I’m fortunate to be all right. It’s now been almost four years since the attack, and I’m as mended as I’m going to be, which is not bad,” Rushdie said, adding recovery and rehabilitation had not slowed him down.
“I’ve actually published three books in the last three years, so it’s going all right. And I’m working on something now, but it’s in early stages. It’s not really ready to talk about.”
The Booker Prize-winning writer has published 23 books, including novels “Midnight’s Children,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh” and “Shalimar the Clown”. He is the 14th recipient of the Liberatum Cultural Honour, which recognises both artistic achievements and contributions to cross-cultural understanding. Previous honourees include architect Zaha Hadid and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
A fervent football fan, Rushdie said he had been “very engaged” with the World Cup.
“I think there’s some very good teams in the competition now. And one of them is England, and I think Harry Kane versus Erling Haaland, it’s going to be fun to watch,” he said, referring to the upcoming Norway-England quarter-final match and the star players.
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala)
