SALMAN RUSHDIE

I don’t want to live in hiding, says writer, 30 years after fatwa from Iran over his controversial book After decades spent in the shadow of a death sentence pronounced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Salman Rushdie is quietly defiant. “I don’t want to live hidden away,” he said

The novelist’s life changed forever on February 14, 1989, when Iran’s spiritual leader ordered Rushdie’s execution after branding his novel The Satanic Verses blasphemous. Tehran renewed the fatwa year after year

Rushdie spent 13 years living under a false name and constant police protection. “I was 41 back then, now I am 71. Things are fine now,” he had said last year.