SEVEN years of never being sure if the next minute is your last.
Seven years of hiding with brief frantic forays, surrounded by armed bodyguards, into the glare of publicity. Seven years since a man who has not read your book decided that its contents warranted a sentence of death. Unappealable. Unrepealable, since its author, Ayatollah Khomeini, is now himself dead. A sentence of death extended to those who help you, edit you, publish you. Carried out in two cases.
A relaxed and voluble Salman Rushdie was in Strasbourg this week to mark the anniversary with another appeal to the international community, particularly the EU, not to forget his plight. He was a guest of the International Parliament of Writers, also supporting their campaign to create "cities of refuge" for persecuted writers.
(Incidentally, the parliament, based in Strasbourg, is looking for an Irish city to join 20 others around the world in agreeing to put up and sponsor an international author. Any takers?)
The European Parliament marked the occasion by passing a resolution calling for a reappraisal of the Council of Ministers' year old policy of "critical dialogue" with Iran.
An internal council memo, leaked to a British paper before Christmas, admits that the dialogue has produced nothing on the Rushdie front.
The Iranian Government has continued to maintain that the fatwa cannot be lifted but is insisting that it is not intending to implement it and that it does not intend to send agents to carry out the sentence.
It will not, however, put this commitment on paper or one expressing a willingness to adhere to international law and condemning terrorism in all its forms.
We are on familiar ground here. Have the Iranians demonstrated a verifiable commitment to either a "complete" or "permanent" lifting of the threat to Mr Rushdie? Is it possible to make a "working assumption" that he is no longer a target?
It is certainly not a "working assumption" that the author can make - he is still surrounded by heavy security on the many more public appearances he now makes, though it is noticeably more relaxed than in the past.
They are questions that Mr Rushdie's supporters say they are not able to answer, and in a significant shift in the emphasis of their campaign, are now putting to the British, German and French authorities.
"The question of credibility is central, " Mr Rushdie says. "I have considerable scepticism in accepting the word of the Iranian Government. I would be much more inclined to accept the assurance of European Union governments."
Neither he nor his supporters have access, he argues, to the intelligence networks of the big European countries. "If the leaders of Europe are able to say that they have grounds for saying the assurances are real we can draw the consequences. If not, it means Iran is lying."
In that case, particularly in the light of the failure of the critical dialogue, there should be a tightening of trade or aid restrictions on Iran, his support campaign argues.
Mr Rushdie is scathing of the attitude of the Italian presidency. "When I was in Italy at the end of last year they were not able to arrange any meetings with any government officials." And it is the only country in Europe whose officials have refused even to acknowledge a single one of the many letters sent to them in seven years.
In desperation the campaign has begun to think about the possibilities of the next presidency, Ireland, taking up the baton.
Mr Rushdie had a warm meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, on a visit to Dublin in the autumn, and got on well with both the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, and the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. Mr Higgins, when they met on his first visit in 1993. All have expressed a desire to help. In 1993 he also met the President, Mrs Robinson.
Ms Frances D'Souza, of the International Rushdie Defence Committee, has now written to Mr Spring looking for support for EU measures to increase the pressure on Iran.
Mr Rushdie's supporters argue that it may be easier for Ireland to establish its bona fides with the Iranians precisely because it does not have a great power status or historical links and because of past success over the release of Brian Keenan.
Mr Rushdie was, however, in a position this week to announce one piece of good news. Following the initiating of proceedings against the Indian government over its ban on his new book, The Moor's Last Sigh, the ban has been lifted just in time, he says with a grin, for the New Delhi book fair.
