Iranian Family wins reprieve after allegedly housing The Satanic Verses

An Iranian family has won a last minute reprieve from deportation this week after being wanted for allegedly having a copy of The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. The book has caused an uproar in Muslim countries since it was first published in 1988. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the religious ruler of Iran at the time of publication, issued a fatwa following a riot against the book in Pakistan. The fatwa called for all good Muslims to kill the author and the publishers of the book. The book was banned in India and burned in demonstrations in the U.K. The threat was later withdrawn, however penalties remained for Iranians caught with a copy of the book.

Farah Ghaemi, a widow with three children, was forced to flee Iran after authorities accused her of having Rushdie’s novel in her home. Ghaemi runs a successful childcare business in Shiraz.

Details of the case have not been made public, however police claim to have found Rushdie’s novel along with several photographed pages of the book in the Ghaemi home. Mrs. Ghaemi and her children have since fled to Britain and settled in Gorton.

Immigration officials did not believe the family’s story, and their asylum appeal was rejected. The family was taken from their home and due to be flown back to Teheran last week. Friends of the Ghaemi family in Iran contacted a specialist law firm and won a judicial review of the decision.

The arrest warrant accuses Mrs. Ghaemi and her daughter of “distributing lies through publishing and the distribution of the misleading book, The Satanic Verses, and making propaganda against the sacred system of the Islamic Republic.” A bail hearing this week may allow the family to return to Manchester. A High Court judge will review the evidence while the family is being held in a detention center near London.

The Satanic Verses is the fictional story of a Bollywood star and a voice over artist in England. Both characters, in an attempt to piece their life back together after a string of bad luck, decide to return to India. The story contains a series of dream narratives which are at the heart of the controversy because it questions the teachings of the prophet Mohammed.

Since its release, those connected to the book have been hit by a series of violent attacks. The Italian translator of the book, Ettore Capriolo, was seriously injured in a stabbing; William Nygaard, the Norweigan publisher, barely survived an assassination attempt; and the Japanese translator of the book, Hitoshi Igarashi, was stabbed to death.

Click here to read an exclusive interview with the only person to ever do an indoor reading of The Satanic Verses in the United States.

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