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

Foucault. Gender. and Male Homosexualities 155
social organization, where women occupied the bottom rungs of intellectual
life, rationality, and humanity. However, despite all of his limitations, Aris­
totle at least emphasized what he considered to be the reciprocity inherent in
friendship as a key ethical issue. 24
The sad truth about Foucault's analysis is that in the end he was not wrong
to look at love relations in the ancient Greco-Roman world in his attempt to
explore a new ethics for modern male homosexuality. Indeed, a more critical
and dialectical reading of the gradual transformation of this relationship in
the ancient world could have led to an ethics of love that more effectively
addressed contemporary concerns. Foucault could have conduded that the
absence of charis, or consent, in same-sex relations of the classical Greek so­
ciety, the prevalent hypocrisy regarding the relationship between the erastes
and the paidika, the re-creation of male/female gendered patterns of subor­
dination, and the overall misogyny of Greek society ultimately undermined
the false ethics of Greek love. What has made the contemporary gay/lesbian
movement such a historic breakthrough is that it has incorporated a number
of new feminist ethical principles in its discourse, such as mutual consent
of the panners, public recognition for the relationship, and alliances across
racial, ethnic, class, and gender divides. In this way, the gay/lesbian move­
ment has moved far beyond the aristocratic male ethics of love in ancient
Greece to a more inclusive and modem ethics of care.
Homosexu ality in the Muslim World
Let us now look at homosexuality in Middle Eastern and Muslim societies
in order to explore possible affinities with earlier practices in Greco-Roman
societies.25 The three major religions of the Abrahamic tradition explicitly
termed homosexuality an abomination, at times punishable by death, but
their implicit stances were usually less stringent. Both the Old Testament
(Leviticus 18:22 and 20:33) and the Talmud prohibit male homosexuality
on several grounds.26 Punishment could take the form of banishment or
even death (Leviticus 18:29 and 20: 13). Most scholars, however, suggest that
these harsh penalties were seldom enforced, since Jews in the Diaspora sel­
dom had the authority to impose the death penalty. Funhermore, ritualis­
tic repentance was possible to avoid divine punishment (Eron 1993, 117) .
Likewise, Christianity regarded homosexuality as a sin, an argument that was
based on both the Old Testament and on passages in the New Testament
(Romans 1:2 6-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10). However, Christian­
ity was also influenced by Greco-Roman culture, which had greater tolerance