Words for the Shah

To the Editors:

The Shah of Iran arrives in the United States November 15. I hope your readers will be interested in the following Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Iran.

Kay Boyle

San Francisco, California

Prime Minister of Iran

Teheran, Iran

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

We have received a copy of a June 13, 1977 Open Letter to you, signed by forty of the most prominent Iranian intellectuals. In that letter, these distinguished literary figures make the following requests of your government:

1) The Writers Association of Iran be activated as a gathering for the dialogue of Iranian intellectuals.

2) All existing obstacles to the creation of centers or clubs for gathering of members of the Association in Teheran and other cities of the country be removed.

3) Legal facilities be provided for the publication and unhampered distribution of an organ by the Association.

We sincerely believe that the fulfillment of the above requests will be a step toward the restoration of human rights and academic freedom in Iran. We urge your government to honor these basic human rights requested by the literary community of Iran.

Should punitive action be taken against any of the signatories of the Open Letter it will be strongly condemned by the world public opinion.

Bella Abzug, Frank Allaun (MP, England), Reza Baraheni, Eric Bentley, Philip Berrigan, Kay Boyle, Charles Cairns, Helen Cairns, Jacqueline Ceballos, Noam Chomsky, Ken Coates (England), Joan Crowell, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Martin Flannery (MP, England), Frances Fitzgerald, Jane Fonda, Allen Ginsberg, Morton Halperin, Joseph Heller, Nat Hentoff, Irving Howe, Ahmad Karimi, Jerzy Kosinski, Pavel Litvinov, Felicia Langer (Israel), Norman Mailer, Joan Maynard (MP, England), Zhores Medvedev, Joan Mellen, Arthur Miller, Kate Millett, Lewis Mumford, Philip Oke, Muriel Rukeyser, Mahmoud Sayrafiezadeh, Ahmad Shamlou, I.F. Stone, Emile Touma, William Wilson (MP, England), Audrey Wise (MP, England), Babak Zahraie

(The original signatures are in the keeping of CAIFI.)