Among her signature campaigns was the defence of Salman Rushdie after Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwā, or religious ruling, 14 February 1989 based on the charge that the book The Satanic Verses (1988) was a work of blasphemy.
By 1978, Iran was gripped by mass turmoil and there was a significant danger that Mohammad Reza Shah would be toppled by a mass rebellion led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.