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

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In our society, nostalgic fundamentalists are happy to use postmodern thought
in their attempts to reject modernity. They use postmodern criticisms of
rationality, individualism, fear of the future, and nostalgia for the past, as
an intellectual resource for their own views. But we need to remember that
postmodemists are uttering their ideas in more tolerant democratic societies,
whereas our fundamentalists are applying these ideas to a society that has yet
to experience rationalism, individualism, pluralism, human rights, freedom
of expression, and so forth . . . . [Our) "Prison-Like Archipelago" is a police
state that does not recognize human rights and destroys those who think
differently. Opposition to modernity stems from a certain "nostalgia" for the
past. However, fundamentalists use the most modern instruments to destroy
a modem civilization (attacking the Twin Towers with an airplane). And
they use the most modem technologies to control [our) society, to abolish
freedom, to remove those who think differently, and to establish an all-seeing
panopticon rule, over everyone and everywhere. (2002, 290-91)
Epilogue
While highlighting some useful concepts from postmodem thought, Ganji
suggested nevertheless that the Iranian dissident movement needed to be
more cautious in its appropriation of postmodem thought: "Whether bad
or good, postmodemism is born out of the Enlightenment. However here
[the Middle East) it is used to revive traditions that existed prior to the En­
lightenment" (2002, 29 1).
Foucault is in fact read creatively by some Iranian intellectuals who wish
to apply his criticisms of modernity to the Islamist state. Many are interested
in Foucault's writings on the nature of power, the view that the operations of
power are all-pervasive, that power games define all social, political, and eco­
nomic relations. They find some of Foucault's theories liberating, since he at­
tacked dogmatic Marxist interpretations, where power was defined exclusively
in class terms. Those who lived through the revolutionary period, and who
remember the highly authoritarian leftist organizations of the time, whether
Stalinist or Maoist, sometimes turn to Foucault and postmodem thought to
reveal power relations within the Left itself. Dissidents are also interested in
Foucault's keen insight that "power creates knowledge." Through such uses
of Foucault, they attempt to undermine the vast body of highly dogmatic
IsIamist doctrine taught in schools and colleges (Jahangard 2004). This as­
pect of Foucault resonates well with Iranian dissidents, since resistance to Is­
lamism is not only political, but also social and cultural. By creating "multiple
sites of resistance," this new generation hopes to undermine the hegemonic
control of the state.