Volume 28, Number 16 · October 22, 1981
The Unpalatable
By Azadeh Esteglal
In response to An Appeal in Iran
(June 11, 1981)
To the Editors:
May I remind this group of Iranian writers and intellectuals [NYR, June 11] that they are just as responsible for the present repressive state of affairs in Iran as those they are seeking to blame.
For those who were not blinded by their desire for "change at any cost," it was obvious what rallying behind Khomeini and his henchmen was going to lead to. Yet all our "intellectuals" threw their weight behind the revolutionary throng drunk with the heady elixir of their abstract ideals and revolutionary fervor—totally oblivious of the realities of the times. What they might have been able to nurture through evolution, they entirely destroyed through revolution. And yet, here they are issuing documents, condemning the very people they helped bring to power. They cooked the stew; now they have to swallow it.
My sympathies are with those Iranians who have to eat the stew they never wanted to cook.
Azadeh Esteglal
Los Angeles, California
