Attacked for lauding Rushdie, PIO author admitted to mental hospital in S Africa

An Indian-origin author in South Africa, who was brutally assaulted after she allegedly praised controversial writer Salman Rushdie and was subjected to harassment, has been admitted to a mental hospital here.

Zainub Priya Dala was hit in the face with a brick and a knife put to her throat last month after she praised Rushdie’s writing at a literary event in a school in Durban, a city on the country’s east coast. She had said that she liked the styles of Rushdie - whose work has angered Muslims around the world - and Indian author Arundhati Roy, which led to a number of teachers and students attending the workshop walking out in protest.

Local media have been unable to reach Dala to corroborate a statement widely distributed by PEN American Centre, the US branch of the world’s leading international literary and human rights organisation, that “expressed outrage at the harassment and confinement” of Dala in a mental institution.

Initially, Dala told media she was recovering at home from the incident, but now PEN America Executive Director Suzanne Nossel, who was visiting South Africa and had contact with Dala, has claimed that the continued harassment has led to the writer being admitted to a mental institution.

“Regrettably, rather than rallying around Dala, some members of the local Muslim community in Durban, South Africa, have ostracised Dala, putting her under extreme pressure to renounce her statement about Rushdie’s work, to repent for her “sins,” and to make a public vow of religious loyalty to Islam,” Nossel said in a statement released yesterday.

“When she continued to refuse to make a religious vow or other statements inconsistent with her personal beliefs she was admitted to a mental institution,” she said. A psychologist by profession and a mother of a young child, Dala ultimately consented to go to the hospital “to avoid intense and intrusive harassment at her home”, the statement said, adding she also reports continued questioning about her beliefs by hospital staff.