South African writer claims campaign of threats after praising Salman Rushdie
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Version 0 of 1. A South African writer assaulted for expressing admiration for Salman Rushdie has been discharged after four nights at a mental health institution, but says she is still being persecuted. “I forcefully insisted on a discharge,” Zainub Priya Dala said on Monday, shortly after returning to her home in Durban. “I could not stay in there for one second longer. I didn’t feel I benefited apart from getting a drugged sleep. I’m now going to have to detox.” Dala was physically attacked last month after expressing her admiration for the Booker prize winner’s writing style during a literary festival. Three men called her “Rushdie’s bitch”, put a knife to her throat and broke her cheekbone with a brick. The 40-year-old claims that she has since been subjected to a campaign of threats and intimidation demanding that she withdraw her praise. Sounding shaken, she recalled: “There was constant pressure every day from certain sections of the Muslim community: take it back and we’ll make it go away.” Phone calls were made from an anonymous number. A sample text message read: “The Muslim youth cannot listen to your admiring this shaitan [devil] writer.” Dala, whose children are aged seven and three, said there was also a “backlash” at the Islamic schools they attend. Finally she and her husband, who is Muslim, turned to a spiritual leader who advised that she seek psychological help then ask for forgiveness. She continued: “We saw a psychiatrist who engaged with my husband throughout the entire interview. He said I had to be admitted for post-traumatic stress disorder. At the time it seemed plausible because I was suffering flashbacks. My husband said we should listen to the doctor; at first I disagreed but then I came around and accepted it.” But her spell at the Life St Joseph’s mental healthcare facility, where she took six or seven pills a day, actually made things worse, she believes. “The occupational therapist recognised me based on the reports and I had people saying, ‘Are you the one who was in the papers?’ It was driving me up the wall. I was pumped so full of drugs that I didn’t know what they were for. I was promised psychological treatment but I was only given one session of one hour with a psychologist.” Since returning home the hostility has resumed. “This morning I got a call from someone called Farouk. He started making a muffling noise down the phone, like he was muffling a handkerchief over his mouth, then put the phone down. I’m getting used to it now. These are people with nothing better to do.” Dala spoke of her anguish at the entire affair, triggered by a chance remark during a panel discussion. “I’m ashamed and disgusted and absolutely shocked. It’s 2015 and this [the fatwa on Rushdie for The Satanic Verses] happened in 1989. So much time has passed and so many beautiful novels have come from Salman Rushdie’s pen. Yet it’s what he’s remembered for, like a millstone around his neck.” Rushdie has been actively involved in this case via Twitter and the writers’ association PEN, for which Dala expressed gratitude. “It’s providing comfort in the sense that, although what I’m going through is a tiny smidgen of what he’s gone through, the fact someone has endured what he endured gives me strength. When I see him I don’t see shaitan but a peace-loving man.” South Africa’s constitution protects the right to freedom of expression and the country, so often torn by race or class, experiences relatively little religious intolerance. Ebrahim Rasool, its former ambassador to the US, told the Mail & Guardian newspaper last year: “South Africa has been this wonderful laboratory for Islam, which has found a high point under democracy and freedom – for Muslims to perfect the art of integration without assimilation and isolation; for Muslims to live with the wonderment of many identities and not a single religious identity.” But Dala, who is agnostic, believes the climate is changing. “South Africa is, in a certain way, regressing when it comes to fundamentalist Islam,” she said. “There’s a huge call for everyone to get back into the fold. They’re on a massive campaign to recruit and recruit. Five or 10 years ago, you wouldn’t find a girl walking down the street wearing a full niqab or veil, but now it’s so commonplace that you don’t even comment on it.” The country’s Muslim Judicial Council disagreed with this view but firmly denounced the attacks on Dala. Nabeweya Malick, a spokesperson, said some groups appear to have misunderstood the author’s comments as endorsing the content of The Satanic Verses rather than Rushdie’s prose style. “It might just be a few hotheads,” she said. “We strongly condemn the fact that ZP Dala was attacked in her car. What happened to her is very unfortunate and we don’t condone it in the least. The calls and harassment she is facing are totally unnecessary.” Malick added: “She has a right to express her views and continue her writing. In South Africa we have freedom of expression. It’s not something allocated to certain groups; it’s for everyone.” Police are still investigating the original assault. Major Thulani Zwane, a spokesman for the police in KwaZulu-Natal province, said: “A case of assault GBH was opened at Mayville police station. We cannot comment further on the merits of the case as investigations are continuing. No arrests made.” |