The accomplices are now frighteningly silent

War is frightening. No one knows that better than Iranians. But for us, every explosion means something different. For us, every explosion that strikes the Revolutionary Guard of the Islamic Republic is an echo of justice. For every life that was stolen. For every name that will never be spoken again. For every execution. For every dream that was crushed by this regime. For the girls who were humiliated, raped, broken. For the political prisoners in dark dungeons. For the mothers who had to bury their children. For the fathers who wept in silence. For the broken bones of students whose only act was to demand freedom. The accomplices are now frighteningly silent.

Keyvan Shahbazi

Forty-seven years in which millions of Iranians had to leave behind their loved ones. Their homes, their streets, their homeland. Forty-seven years of farewells. Forty-seven years forced to live on as strangers, and even then still looking over your shoulder, afraid of the long arm of that regime.

But do you know what is truly frightening?

What is truly frightening is a regime that murders 40,000 people in forty-eight hours. And a world that responds with words like “de-escalation,” “restraint,” and “international law.” A world that looks away. That moral arrogance, that pretense of moral superiority, that is frightening. A world that has ignored the suffering of the Iranian people for 47 years. That silence is frightening. The arrogance. The misplaced moral self-righteousness, when some would rather accuse America and Israel than the murderers in Tehran.

I do not know Islamism from books. For me, Islamism means firing squads. Lashings. The screams of girls under torture. Fear. We Iranians know the truth. And truth is the beginning of freedom. We appreciate the support of those who have not forgotten our people.

The tragedy is that the world helped bring this regime into existence. In 1977, Iran was one of the most promising economies in the world. With a much smaller population, its economy was 26 percent larger than Turkey’s and 65 percent larger than South Korea’s. But the collapse came suddenly in 1979. Khomeini presented himself in Paris, at the heart of the free press, as a moderate revolutionary. He promised freedom of the press, equal rights for men and women, no dress codes, no rule by clerics. The BBC Persian Service became his mouthpiece. The Democrat, President Carter, dealt with him behind the Shah’s back and prevented the army from intervening. His ambassador in Tehran called Khomeini “a Gandhi.” His UN ambassador even spoke of “a social-democratic saint.”

Many Western left-wing intellectuals such as Michel Foucault wrote enthusiastic pieces, organized gatherings, and praised what they called the “spiritual politics of Islamism.”

But anyone who had read his earlier writings knew better. The ideology was never hidden. Yet many in the West did not want to see it, blinded by their aversion to the West, to themselves. Not even when the executions began. The world is still paying the price for that. And left-wing intellectuals remain silent. No self-reflection. No regret. History repeats itself, not because we have learned nothing, but because the accomplices refuse to acknowledge what they have done. And that refusal has consequences. Not in the canal districts of Amsterdam. Not in Paris or New York. But there. In Tehran. In prisons. In lives. And that silence—that is the most frightening thing of all.

Keyvan Shahbazi – Guest Author

Keyvan Shahbazi (Tehran, 1964) is a cultural psychologist, writer, and commentator, and the author of the bestselling book about Iran, The American of Karaj. He has advised Dutch government officials, taught at the Police Academy, and is a board member of the Committee Iran Free. In 2024 he was named Freethinker of the Year; in 2025 he was nominated for the Pim Fortuyn Prize. He wrote columns for de Volkskrant for many years and has published in De Telegraaf since 2020. In 2025, two of his books were simultaneously in the Bestseller Top 60.

This article previously appeared on March 25, 2026, in De Telegraaf.

Image credits: Keyvan Shahbazi