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

200 Appendix
this city, which was thrown on the ground like a rootless geography, 33 but
soon these people were going to be governed differently, fo rced to live oth­
erwise, connected to each other by other relations, and maybe displaced.
Where can protection be sought, how can what one is be found, · if not
in this Islam, which for centuries has regulated everyday life, family ties, and
social relations with such care? Have not its rigor and its immobility consti­
tuted its good fo rtune? A sociologist told me of its "value as a refuge."34 It
seems to me, however, that this man, who knew his country well, erred (out
of discretion, perhaps, in front of the European that I am) by an excessive
Westernness.
Let us remember that the commemoration of the victims of the uprising
took place eight days ago in Tehran's immense cemetery, which carries the
name "Paradise. "35 Where the dead sleep in shallow ground under a thin
layer of cement, the families, the friends of the dead, and people by the thou­
sands were praying. They wailed, raising up their arms. But early in the af­
ternoon, around the black and gray robes of the mullahs, discussion had
already begun, and with such violence! Overthrow the shah, immediately
or later? Chase out the Americans, but how? Take up arms or keep waiting?
Support or denounce the opposition deputies who, by attacking the regime
in parliament, give the world the impression that freedom is back? Late in the
evening, groups formed, broke apart, and re-formed around the clerics. In the
political excitement, the dead were not fo rgotten, but given the veneration to
which they were entitled.
Moreover, eight days earlier, thousands of demonstrators, bare-handed
in front of armed soldiers, had streamed into the streets of Tehran, shouting
"Islam, Islam!"; "Soldier, my brother, why shoot your brother? Come with
us to save the Quran"; "Khomeini, heir to Hussein, Khomeini, we fo llow in
your footsteps." And I know more than one student, "left-wing" according to
our categories, who had written in big letters, "Islamic Government, " on the
placard on which he had written his demands and that he was holding up
with outstretched arms.
It is necessary to go back even further. Throughout this whole year, revolt
ran throughout Iran, from celebrations to commemorations, from worship,
to sermons, to prayers. Tehran honored the dead of Ab adan, Tabriz those of
Isfahan, and Isfahan those of Qom. White, red, and green lanterns were lit up
after nightfall on big tree branches in front of hundreds of houses. 36 It was the
"wedding bed" of the boys just killed.37 In the mosques during the day, the
mullahs spoke furiously against the shah, the Americans, and the West and
its materialism. They called for people to fight against the entire regime in the
name of the Quran and ofIslam. When the mosques became too small for the