Ruhollah Khomeini in his hearing and in his presence." Though Rushdie publicly regretted "the distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam", the fatwa was not revoked. Rushdie himself was not killed but Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of the book "The Satanic Verses", was murdered and two other translators of the book survived murder attempts. In a speech given to a huge crowd after returning to Iran from exile 1 February 1979, Khomeini made a variety of promises to Iranians for his coming Islamic regime: a popularly elected government that would represent the people of Iran and with which
Haroun and the Sea of Stories of the story deal with the problems of censorship: an issue particularly pertinent to Rushdie because of the fatwa against him backed by Ayatollah Khomeini. The book is highly allusive and puns in multiple languages. Many of the major character's names allude to some aspect of speech or silence. It was made into an audiobook read by Rushdie himself. At the beginning of the story, protagonist Haroun Khalifa lives with his father Rashid, a famous storyteller, and his mother Soraya, until the latter is seduced by their neighbor 'Mr. Sengupta' to leave home. Thereafter Rashid is hired to speak on