Twenty-five years after the fatwa, Salman Rushdie is safer but not safe, and speech for other writers is far from free

"I wish I'd written a more critical book." Exactly a quarter-century after the Ayatollah Khomeini threatened Salman Rushdie and "all those involved" in the publication of The Satanic Verses with death, the bravery of the author's immediate reaction is all the more impressive.

For Ian McEwan, remembering those times in 2012, the first few months were the worst:

No one knew anything. Were Iranian agents, professional killers, already in place in the UK when the fatwa was proclaimed? Might a "freelancer", stirred by a denunciation in a mosque, be an effective assassin? The media excitement was so intense that it was hard to think straight.

Hundreds dead in riots, an editor killed, a publisher shot, a translator stabbed and books burned from Bolton to Islamabad. Sometimes it's easy to forget the fatwa's human cost among the wry anecdotes of clandestine dinner parties and Special Branch minders.

Rushdie's still not sure if the struggle over The Satanic Verses has produced a clear winner, explaining to Stuart Jeffries in 2012 that "the book is still in print and the author wasn't suppressed so it was a victory in that sense. But the fear and menaces have grown."

Twenty-five years on, Rushdie says he's a "level three or four" risk now, even though the fatwa against him still appears to be in force. In the week where Penguin India withdrew Wendy Doniger's The Hindus from circulation, the anniversary reminds us that fear and menaces surround any writer who dares to "provoke the imagination".