Writer Salman Rushdie is a passionate defender of freedom of thought, but that has come at a high price. Iran's Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against the author in 1989, and in 2022, Rushdie survived an attempt on his life. DW sat down with the award-winning writer.
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00:00 Salman Rushdie keeps on writing, in spite of death threats and a knife attack.
00:07 He's a true believer in and defender of freedom of thought.
00:11 At this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German book
00:16 trade.
00:17 What does this prize mean for you?
00:20 You know, it's a very important prize.
00:23 An award like this, which celebrates the value of peace, is particularly in a moment when
00:30 there are two wars going on.
00:34 Suddenly nobody's talking about Ukraine, but that's still going on.
00:39 At a time of conflict so deep as it is right now, it's all the more important to restate
00:46 the importance of the value of peace.
00:48 First, let's talk about your current book, Victory City, which was published this year.
00:54 Victory City tells of the kingdom of Visnagar in southern India that actually existed, where
01:01 men and women are equal and all faith are welcome.
01:06 Some of the time.
01:08 But Visnagar also perishes at the end because it abandons all its ideals.
01:15 Is this a commentary on the world situation?
01:18 Well, one of the things that interested me doing the research for the book was that it's
01:23 really true that in this very long ago period, this is the 14th and 15th century we're talking
01:28 about, that the place of women in society was very advanced in many ways.
01:34 And women in every walk of life, in the army, in the legal profession, or as merchant traders,
01:43 et cetera.
01:44 And I thought how interesting that 700 years ago that was true.
01:49 But of course, the thing about history is that nothing is true all the time.
01:54 There are moments when it's liberal and tolerant and open and other moments when it becomes
01:59 illiberal and intolerant.
02:01 Rushdie grew up in India and the UK.
02:04 He has first-hand experience of what it's like to be the target of terrorism and intolerance.
02:09 He was already a well-known writer when his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, was published
02:14 in 1988.
02:16 For large parts of the Muslim world, it was seen as a provocation.
02:20 The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa against him in 1989, calling
02:26 on Muslims to kill him.
02:28 The writer had to go into hiding for a long time.
02:32 But he kept writing, against religious extremism and censorship.
02:36 His strong values have cost him a lot.
02:39 More than 30 years after the fatwa was issued, he was attacked in 2022 and barely survived.
02:46 The world was shocked when you were attacked and seriously injured more than a year ago.
02:53 How are you today?
02:54 I mean, as you see, I'm pretty much recovered.
02:57 I mean, I'm a little beaten up, but I'm all right.
03:01 I feel like a working writer.
03:04 And I'm by no means the only writer in the world who has been threatened or attacked.
03:10 And unfortunately, this is a phenomenon that has gone on through history, and it doesn't
03:16 show any signs of stopping.
03:18 So we have to fight against it.
03:20 That's the only thing to do, to keep going.
03:23 There's the actual war between Hamas and Israel.
03:27 What can literature achieve in such difficult situations, in such difficult conflicts?
03:33 I mean, very little.
03:34 I just think there are things that words can't do, and what they can't do is stop wars.
03:39 What writers can do, which they are doing, is to try and articulate the incredible pain
03:44 that many people are feeling right now.
03:46 That's probably the best we can do, is to articulate the nature of the problem.
03:51 His next book, "Knife, Meditations After an Attempted Murder," is set to be published
03:55 next year.
03:57 Salman Rushdie continues to write and defend freedom of thought.
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