foucault-and-the-iranian-revolution-janet-afary
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248 Appendix<br />
to <strong>the</strong> Precepts of <strong>the</strong> Quran"; thieves <strong>and</strong> adulterous women flogged. Iran<br />
has had a narrow escape. When one thinks that after decades of ferocious<br />
dictatorship under <strong>the</strong> shah <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> SAVAK, this country almost fell into <strong>the</strong><br />
trap of a "Spanish-type" solution, of a democratic parliament, this news is<br />
proof enough of that country's good fortune.<br />
October 1978: "The Saint, " "<strong>the</strong> destitute exile, " "<strong>the</strong> man who rises up<br />
with bare h<strong>and</strong>s, " "Ayatollah Khomeini" ruined it all. He sent out an appeal<br />
to <strong>the</strong> students . . . <strong>the</strong> Muslims . . . <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> army to oppose, in <strong>the</strong> name of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Quran <strong>and</strong> in <strong>the</strong> name of nationalism, <strong>the</strong>se ideas of compromise con<br />
cerning elections, a constitution, <strong>and</strong> so forth. Thank God, <strong>the</strong> call was heard.<br />
What fo rm was this Islamic government supposed to have taken? "Ab<br />
sence of hierarchy in <strong>the</strong> dergy . . . importance of purely spiritual authority,<br />
a both echoing <strong>and</strong> guiding role that <strong>the</strong> dergy must play in order to sustain<br />
its influence . . . " Spiritual light "that is capable of illuminating from <strong>the</strong> in<br />
side, a law that is not made to be conserved . . . " -this is so stupidly <strong>the</strong> sign<br />
of "Western" democracies-no . . but to release over time <strong>the</strong> spiritual mean<br />
ing that it holds." Pertinent: Shoot a homosexual, <strong>and</strong> you have revealed,<br />
it is true, <strong>the</strong> spiritual meaning of <strong>the</strong> law "in <strong>the</strong> Islamic fashion. " "In <strong>the</strong><br />
pursuit of this ideal" . . . (very old <strong>and</strong> "very far in <strong>the</strong> future " . . . a brighter<br />
future) . . . "distrust of legalism seemed essential to me." As a matter of fact,<br />
<strong>the</strong> Islamic government, each day, proves its illegalism by way of bullets. This<br />
"political will" <strong>the</strong>refore will have been "sufficiently intense to prevent itself<br />
from aiming toward a Western-style parliamentary regime."<br />
This spirituality that disciplines <strong>and</strong> punishes allowed <strong>the</strong> people of Iran<br />
to rise up. Spontaneous armed groups, benevolent Islamic committees that<br />
"counterattack" <strong>and</strong> take immediate revenge, sweeping away <strong>the</strong> odious <strong>and</strong><br />
stage-managed bourgeois courts with <strong>the</strong>ir well-known <strong>and</strong> oppressive trail<br />
of interrogations, investigations, witnesses, proofs, hearings, <strong>and</strong> supposedly<br />
neutral judges-this is <strong>the</strong> people's justice for which Michel Foucault passion<br />
ately yearned, notably in "On Popular Justice: A Conversation with Maoists"<br />
(Temps modernes, no. 310 bis, 1972). 107<br />
No, <strong>the</strong> philosopher is not responsible for <strong>the</strong> blood that flows today in<br />
Iran. It is not he who invented Islam <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> ayatollahs. It is not he who,<br />
sitting cross-legged in a mosque in Qom, fulminates his "firmans, "108 like<br />
Mao, not long ago, with his "supreme directives." The philosopher contents<br />
himself with painting <strong>and</strong> offering images, holy images: <strong>the</strong> abridged illus<br />
trated imam, sequel to <strong>the</strong> hurried marabout of people's justice. 109 He is no<br />
more responsible than Leon Daudet for <strong>the</strong> Holocaust, 110 or than <strong>the</strong> Western<br />
communist intellectuals for <strong>the</strong> socialist gulags.<br />
Also, no one is forced, with a gun to <strong>the</strong> head, to declare that Daudet,