Salman Rushdie receives Václav Havel Library Foundation award

British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie received the Václav Havel Library Foundation's first-ever Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award in New York on Tuesday evening, writes The Associated Press agency. The writer's prize and presence at the ceremony were kept secret until only a few minutes before he accepted the award due to security concerns.

Rushdie has faced more than three decades of death threats and assassination attempts following a 1989 fatwa calling for his death issued by the former supreme leader of Iran, Rouhollah Khomeini, over his book The Satanic Verses, and was the victim of a knife attack by 24-year-old Hadi Matar at a literary festival in New York last August because of his perceived insults to Islam. He spent six weeks in hospital after the attack, having suffered stab wounds to his neck and torso, and is now blind in his right eye. Since then he has been keeping a low profile.

The Václav Havel Library Foundation was founded in 2012 with the mission to advance the legacy of Havel, Czech playwright, dissident and first president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, who had died a year earlier and was known for championing human rights and freedom of expression. The foundation annually awards the prize to a writer who has "faced unjust persecution for their beliefs" and shares Havel's determination to stand up for human rights.