Foucault and the Iranian Revolution
Gender and the Seductions of Islamism
In this important and controversial account, Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson illuminate Foucault's support of the Islamist movement. They also show how Foucault's experiences in Iran contributed to a turning point in his thought, influencing his ideas on the Enlightenment, homosexuality, and his search for political spirituality. Foucault and the Iranian Revolution informs current discussion on the divisions that have reemerged among Western intellectuals over the response to radical Islamism after September 11. Foucault's provocative writings are thus essential for understanding the history and the future of the West's relationship with Iran and, more generally, to political Islam. In their examination of these journalistic pieces, Afary and Anderson offer a surprising glimpse into the mind of a celebrated thinker.
Association for Humanist Sociology: AHS-Association for Humanist Sociology Book Award
Honorable Mention
Persian Heritage Foundation: Latifeh Yarshater Award
Won
"[Foucault's] dispatches--now fully available in translation--shed some light on the illusions of intellectuals in our own time. . . .at a time when religion is resurgent in politics and Western liberals are divided between interventionists and anti-imperialists, Foucault's particular blend of blindness and insight about the Islamists remains instructive. The authors dissect the shortcuts and evasions that led Foucault into his distinctive stance."
"The whole of Foucault's Iranian journalism--a total of fifteen articles and interviews--was republished in France in 1994 as part of a four-volume anthology of his occasional writings. Ever since then, French critics have made the most of his 'error' over Islamism, and some of them sought to implicate him in the attacks on Washington and New York in 2001. In the English-speaking world, however, the Iranian writings have hitherto been ignored; but the anomaly is now being put right with some authority by Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson. In Foucault and the Iranian Revolution, they tell the full story of Foucault's sudden induction into the journalist's trade and his contacts with exiles in Paris and rebels in Iran, concluding with an appendix of 100 pages comprising translations of Foucault's articles, together with some of the reactions they provoked, copiously annotated and explained. One could hardly have asked for more."
"Afary and Anderson assign a deeper cause to Foucault's persistent misreading of the Khomeini revolution: His deep disdain for women. . . . Till now, most students of Foucault have treated the Maitre's yearnings as an odd, embarrassing, but ultimately trivial derogation from his great contributions to modern thought. Afary and Anderson have restored them to the place that Foucault himself believed they occupied: the very center."
Introduction
Part I Foucault's Discourse: On Pinnacles and Pitfalls
1. The Paradoxical World of Foucault: The Modern and the Traditional Social Orders
2. Processions, Passion Plays, and Rites of Penance: Foucault, Shi'ism, and Early Christian Rituals
Part II Foucault's Writings on the Iranian Revolution and After
3. The Visits to Iran and the Controversies with "Atoussa H." and Maxime Rodinson
4. Debating the Outcome of the Revolution, Especially on Women's Rights
5. Foucault, Gender, and Male Homosexualities in Mediterranean and Muslim Societies
Epilogue: From the Iranian Revolution to September 11, 2001
Appendix: Foucault and His Critics, an Annotated Translation
Notes
References
Index
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