‘Brutal Assault’ author Salman Rushdie is blind in one eye

His agent has now confirmed that Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye after being stabbed by a religious fanatic and that he will be able to use one hand down.

The 75-year-old writer, who received death threats from Iran in the 1980s following the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, was stabbed in the neck and upper body on August 12 by a 24-year-old assailant while at the Chautauqua Institution in the United States. state of New York wanted to give a lecture on artistic freedom.

‘It was a brutal attack’
After the attack it was already clear that Rushdie had been seriously injured and could lose an eye. But only now was the full extent known.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País, his agent Andrew Wylie said the injuries were serious and life-changing.

“His wounds were deep, but he also lost sight in one eye,” Wylie said. “He had three serious wounds in his neck. A hand has been immobilized because the nerves in his arm were severed. And he has about 15 other wounds on his chest and torso. So it was a brutal attack.”

For security reasons, Wylie declined to tell the paper whether Rushdie is still in hospital or has already been discharged. The important thing is simply that the writer is alive.

Rushdie expected an attack
He also said that Rushdie had spoken to him in the past about the possibility of an attack on him. “The biggest danger he faced so many years after the fatwa was imposed is that a random person would appear out of nowhere and attack,” Wylie said. You can’t protect yourself from it because it happens “unexpectedly” and is “illogical”. “It was like the murder of John Lennon.”