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
Knighthood of Salman Rushdie led a march of around 300 activists outside the British High Commission and the United States embassy in Kuala Lumpur. They denounced both the knighthood and US policy in the Middle East. They were monitored by riot police equipped with trucks carrying water cannons but the event did not descend into violence. The "Protesters spent 15 minutes outside the building, chanting slogans and waving posters that read 'Unite for Islam', 'Death penalty for Salman' and 'Salman Rushdie Get Lost From This World.'" One placard had a caricature of Rushdie with horns growing out of his head. At the 20 minute