Salman Rushdie has voiced his support for the women of Iran in their struggle against the oppression of the Islamic Republic.

The celebrated author told Iran International: "I have sympathy with the women of Iran, they have fought so hard. I wish them luck.”

Rushdie was speaking while attending a gala event of artistic freedom campaigners PEN America on Thursday, when Iranian writer and human rights advocate Narges Mohammadi was awarded the 2023 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award.

Rushdie was left with serious injuries including the loss of an eye when he was stabbed last August. The attempted murder is believed to have been inspired by the fatwa issued by the Islamic Republic’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini against Rushdie for his novel The Satanic Verses.

Earlier this year, the Islamic Republic said it will grant 1,000 square meters of farmland to the man who stabbed Rushdie on stage at a lecture in New York State, 24-year-old Hadi Matar.

Freedom To Write award recipient Mohammadi has been in and out of prison over the past decade. She is currently in Evin Prison in Tehran on charges of “spreading propaganda” and has been subjected to “prolonged solitary confinement and intense psychological torture,” PEN America said.

Mohammadi’s husband, journalist and activist Taghi Rahmani, who lives in Paris and has also been jailed in Iran, accepted the award on her behalf.

In a written message, which was read out from the stage during the event, Mohammadi called for an end to the Islamic Republic’s “misogynist, oppressive and theocratic” regime.

Founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, PEN America is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of literature and human rights.