Marianne Wiggins natural voice." Wiggins lived in London for 16 years, and for brief periods in Paris, Brussels and Rome. In January 1988, she married the novelist Salman Rushdie in London. On February 14, 1989 the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a "Fatwa" ordering Rushdie's assassination for alleged blasphemy in his book, "The Satanic Verses". Although Wiggins had told Rushdie only five days prior that she wished to end their marriage, she nevertheless went into hiding along with him. In 1993, the two divorced. Wiggins currently lives in Los Angeles, California, where she has been in the English department of the University of
Salman Rushdie "an anti-religious novel. It is, however, an attempt to write about migration, its stresses and transformations." On 14 February 1989—Valentine's Day, and also the day of his close friend Bruce Chatwin's funeral—a "fatwā" ordering Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at the time, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam". (Chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Imam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety.) A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death, and he was thus forced