Salman Rushdie receives first-ever Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award

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Salman Rushdie was awarded the inaugural Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award in a surprise ceremony at the Vaclav Havel Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The event was attended by over 100 guests, with only a select few having prior knowledge of Rushdie’s presence. This secrecy was maintained due to the author’s limited public appearances following a violent attack in August 2022 during a literary festival in Western New York.

In his acceptance speech, Rushdie expressed his apologies for being an enigmatic guest but asserted that he did not feel mysterious himself. He mentioned that this discreet approach had simplified his life in some ways.

The Vaclav Havel Center, initially established in 2012 as the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, is dedicated to upholding the legacy of the Czech playwright and dissident Vaclav Havel. Havel, who became the last president of Czechoslovakia following the collapse of the Communist regime in the late 1980s, was renowned for his advocacy of human rights and free expression. The ceremony, which celebrated Rushdie’s achievements, was attended by numerous notable writers and diplomats and was hosted by the long-time CBS journalist Lesley Stahl.

In addition to Rushdie’s recognition, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, an imprisoned Egyptian activist, received the Disturbing the Peace Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk. Abdel-Fattah’s aunt, the acclaimed author and translator Adhaf Soueif, accepted the award on his behalf. She conveyed his gratitude and mentioned that he was particularly amused by the name of the award, “Disturbing the Peace.”

Abdel-Fattah rose to international prominence during the 2011 pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East that led to the ousting of Egypt’s long-standing President Hosni Mubarak. Subsequently, he faced multiple imprisonments under the presidency of Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, becoming a symbol of the ongoing autocratic rule in Egypt.

During his acceptance speech, the 76-year-old Rushdie humorously remarked on the irony of recently receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade and now being honored with a prize for “disturbing the peace.” He playfully pondered which side of “the fence” he found himself on.

Rushdie dedicated a significant portion of his speech to praising Vaclav Havel, whom he considered a personal hero and a close friend. He remembered Havel as one of the first government leaders to defend him when he went into hiding following Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 decree condemning him to death for alleged blasphemy in his novel “The Satanic Verses.” Rushdie lauded Havel’s ability to be both an artist and an activist simultaneously and expressed deep gratitude for receiving an award bearing Havel’s name, considering it a tremendous honor.

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More about Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award

• Salman Rushdie
• Vaclav Havel Center
• Azar Nafisi
• Alaa Abdel-Fattah
• Disturbing the Peace Award
• Peace Prize of the German Book Trade
• “The Satanic Verses”