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Salman Rushdie reflects on the 2022 stabbing, the fatwa that forced him into hiding, and the new documentary Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie.
Salman Rushdie, the author of Midnight's Children, has spoken about the 2022 stabbing that cost him his right eye and the long recovery that followed. The attack occurred in August 2022 at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, as Rushdie was about to give a public interview. A man later identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar rushed the stage and stabbed him multiple times. Rushdie suffered wounds to his face, liver and hand, and lost his right eye. The incident shocked the literary world and revived memories of the death threats that had forced him into hiding for years.
By the late summer of 2022, Rushdie had become relatively relaxed about the threats that followed the 1989 publication of his novel The Satanic Verses. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then supreme leader of Iran, had issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death over supposedly disrespectful depictions of the prophet Muhammad. The fatwa led to numerous acts of violence, and Rushdie went into hiding. As the new century loomed, the danger appeared to recede. In September 1998, as the Iranian government sought to restore diplomatic relations with the UK, then-president Mohammad Khatami declared Iran would neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie. Rushdie took what he could from that statement.
Four years ago, Rushdie approached the Chautauqua interview with confidence. He had thought the nightmare was over. He had moved to New York at the beginning of 2000 and, until the attack in 2022, had led what he described as a perfectly normal writer's life, doing hundreds of public appearances without a hint of a problem. The attack shattered that sense of safety. Rushdie has said he received wounds to his face, liver and hand, and lost his right eye. The opaque right lens on his spectacles speaks to one lasting legacy of the attack.
Recovery and the Making of a Documentary
Rushdie has undergone a long recovery period. He says he is pretty well, more than four years after the attack, but acknowledges limitations. He cannot drive a car, for example, due to the loss of an eye. After such a horrific attack, he could be forgiven for pushing the event into the mental background, but that is not how he operates. In 2024 he published a book about the attack titled Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. That book has now become a documentary from prolific film-maker Alex Gibney.
It transpired that Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Rushdie's wife since 2021, had been filming his recovery from the very start. Gibney's Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie meshes that footage with archive material and contemporary interviews to striking effect. Rushdie said the project was kind of his idea. He had suggested to his wife, Eliza, that they should make some sort of record of the attack. He initially proposed she take a picture on her iPhone every couple of days to document the injuries and recovery for their own use. But she had a better idea. Apart from being a wonderful writer, she is also a very professional photographer and videographer. Griffiths asked a friend to go to their house and send her camera equipment to the hospital where Rushdie was being treated. They ended up spending a year chronicling his recovery.
When Rushdie sat down and watched the footage, he realised that it did not look like a home movie, as it had been made with care and attention. Gibney, director of such films as Taxi to the Dark Side and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, came on board to shape it into its current compelling form. Rushdie was able to rewatch footage of the actual attack. When they were making the documentary, for a long time they did not have that footage. It had not been made available to them because it was considered to be evidence. But eventually they did get the footage, and then Gibney found his way of cutting it into the film, in a cross-cutting sequence. They saw that final cut in January 7th this year, about two weeks before it was premiered at Sundance. The first time they saw that footage was when Eliza and Rushdie went to watch the final cut. He pauses. It was not an easy watch.
Rushdie Reflects on Trauma and Identity
The word triggering is often misused now, but it was once helpful as a way of describing how reminders of such trauma can reignite anxiety and distress. Rushdie says that triggering is a little too military for his liking, with his characteristic dry wit. Rushdie would not wish to be defined by the fatwa or the recent assault. There is no risk of that.
Rushdie's literary career includes the immortal Midnight's Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981. The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, led to the fatwa in 1989. The fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, in response to supposedly disrespectful depictions of the prophet Muhammad. Numerous appalling acts of violence followed. Rushdie went into hiding. The literary world shuddered. As the new century loomed, the peril seemed to be receding. In September 1998, as the Iranian government sought to restore diplomatic relations with the UK, Mohammad Khatami, the Islamic state's then president, declared Iran would neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie. You take what you can get.
Four years ago the author approached a public interview in Chautauqua, in upstate New York, with some confidence. It seemed as if the nightmare was over. He had pretty much thought that, because it had been over for more than two decades. We know what happened. A man later identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar rushed on to the stage and stabbed the author frequently and with great ferocity. Rushdie received wounds to the face, liver and hand. He ended up losing his right eye. He moved to New York at the beginning of the year 2000. And from that date until the date of the attack, in 2022, he had really been leading a perfectly normal writer's life. He did the kinds of things that writers do: writing books, doing readings, giving lectures. He must have done hundreds of public appearances without there ever being a hint of a problem.
The opaque right lens on his spectacles speaks to one lasting legacy of the attack, but Rushdie looks reasonably spry for a man late into his eighth decade. He is obliged to ask how he is bearing up. He says he is pretty well, thank you. It has been more than four years, and he has had quite a long recovery period. But there are things he cannot do that he could do five years ago. He cannot drive a car, for example. So the problems of having lost an eye are the obvious ones. After such a horrific attack, he has talked about his bulging boiled-egg eye hanging out of his face. Rushdie could be forgiven for pushing the event into the mental background. But that is not how he operates. In 2024 he published a book about the attack titled Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. That has now become a documentary from the prolific film-maker Alex Gibney.
Salman Rushdie Hadi Matar Knife Documentary Alex Gibney The Satanic Verses Fatwa Chautauqua Attack
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