foucault-and-the-iranian-revolution-janet-afary

Chapter 4
Debating the Outcome of the Revolution,
Especially on Women's Rights
Foucault and Rodinson Respond to Khomeini's Assumption of Power
Khomeini, who was now addressed by the honorific title, "Imam," 1 returned
to Iran on February I, 1979, an event celebrated on the streets of Tehran
by about three million people. He went directly to the Paradise of Zahra
Cemetery, where he outlawed the monarchy, the majlis, and the senate. He
labeled the visual media-television, radio, and cinema-"centers of moral
corruption." Addressing the army, he called on the soldiers to choose "Islam"
and national independence. Iran was freeing itself from a foreign yoke,
he said (Khomeini 1999, 6:15). As Khomeini moved to seize power from
the shah's last prime minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, the French press began to
express greater wariness about Iran. On February 3, Le Monde editorialized,
"The concern and sometimes the exasperation of the secular forces and the
Left are beginning to express themselves in the face of the emergence of an
Islamic Republic that, despite its noble declarations, could well prove to be
intolerant and oppressive" ("Le tout ou rien" 1979). Le Monde also carried a
report on the widespread, organized persecution of Baha'is.
On February 6, Khomeini formed a provisional government headed by
the moderate Islamist Mehdi Bazargan. This gave the clerical regime in formation
a relatively benign face, prompting many to predict that Khomeini,
already 77, would now retreat to a contemplative life, allowing a broad coalition
government involving secular as well as religious parties to rule. On
February 8, a million people, including hundreds of soldiers, filled the streets
of Tehran in a demonstration calling for Bakhtiar to resign immediately in
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