Misses Driving, Movies, Rushdie Says

Salman Rushdie, in hiding for nearly a year since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran ordered his death, said in an interview published Saturday that he misses ordinary pleasures like driving a car and going to the movies.

In a 90-minute telephone interview with Newsweek, Rushdie also said he feels that if his novel “The Satanic Verses” is not issued in paperback, then the death order and the campaign against the book will have succeeded.

Khomeini ordered Muslims a year ago to kill Rushdie for blaspheming Islam in the surrealistic novel. The Indian-born author went into hiding in Britain last Feb. 14. Khomeini died last June 3, but Iran did not lift the order, and Rushdie has remained in hiding under police protection. He has refused interviews until agreeing to call Newsweek from his hiding place.