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The book portrayed a fictionalized version of the Prophet Mohammed and an interpretation of the Quran that caused a stir in the Muslim community and eventually led toa condemnation from Khomeini that included a fatwa (a ruling on Islamic law) calling for his assassination, with a bounty for whomever executed it. Rushdie had to go into hiding in the immediate aftermath, and lived under the death threat until 1998, when the Iranian government said it would no longer enforce the fatwa (though it remained active).
In 1989, PEOPLE covered Rushdie’s exile and the impact on his marriage to writer Marianne Wiggins. Read excerpts from our coverage at the time, below.
Salman Rushdie, Dec. 25, 1989
The Bombay-born novelist, 42, well knew the fire and rigor of Islam when he wroteThe Satanic Verses; he was raised an upper-middle-class Muslim before being sent off to England in his teens. And he has picked fights before: In 1984 Indira Gandhi sued him for slander. But did he intend Verses' portrayal of Mohammed as a liar to so infuriate the faithful? Nobody knows. From hiding he issued a statement of “profound regret.” The rest is silence.
Bomb-fearing bookstores refused to stock Rushdie’s book until publicity changed their minds. Yet the controversy pushed sales ofThe Satanic Versesto more than 1 million—thousands more, presumably, than would have been sold had Khomeini kept his mouth shut. Not that many people actually completed the difficult book. Even the Ayatollah, who died in June, reportedly never read it.
Writer Salman Rushdie’s Life on the Run Leaves His Marriage to Marianne Wiggins on the Rocks
The marriage of writers Salman Rushdie and Marianne Wiggins was reported to be shaky even before the Ayatollah Khomeini sentenced Rushdie to death for his alleged blasphemies inThe Satanic Verses, and the enforced togetherness of six months in hiding could hardly have been expected to salvage it. The announcement, when it came on Aug. 25, was terse: “Marianne Wiggins has announced through her publishers, Seeker & Warburg, that she and her husband, Salman Rushdie, have been living separately for four weeks. Scotland Yard security arrangements for the protection of Mr. Rushdie have been reorganized since then, and Ms. Wiggins does not know where he is. Ms. Wiggins requests privacy. She is not prepared to discuss the matter further.”
Wiggins, 41, who was born in Lancaster, Pa., met Rushdie, 42, an Indian-born Muslim, in 1986. They were married in January 1988 and, though there were rumors of professional jealousies on both sides, they were apparently content long enough to dedicate books to each other during the past year. Wiggins’s novel John Dollar was inscribed “To my beloved Salman”;The Satanic Verses, simply “For Marianne.”
The couple’s lives turned to nightmare soon afterVerseswas published in Britain in September 1988. Muslims around the world protested, and Khomeini handed down Rushdie’s death sentence on Feb. 14. Rushdie and Wiggins went into hiding.John Dollarhad just been published and, according to the LondonDaily Telegraph, Wiggins was “upset that she was unable to publicize her book personally because of the death threat.”
In an interview with the LondonSunday Telegraphthis summer, Wiggins spoke of the hardships of life on the run. She and Rushdie, she said, had slept in 56 different beds in four months. She also said, “I am married to him, and what I needed to do was to be with him and to make his life go forward.”
That interview appeared July 30. If the statement from her publisher is accurate, Marianne Wiggins and Salman Rushdie had already gone their separate ways.
source: people.com
