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

60 Foucault's Discourse
In considering AI-Ahmad and Shariati here, we should not forget that a far
larger number of Iranian students and intellectuals of the 1960s were fascinated
by Western schools of thought, such as Marxism and existentialism, and
were not interested in Islamic politics. But men like Al-Ahmad and Shariati
modernized the old religious narratives by connecting them to some of the
themes of leftist thought, thus making them more palatable to students and
intellectuals. Soon after his return to Iran in 1964, Shariati gained a reputation
as a powerful lecturer. When Husseiniyeh Ershad, a somewhat modern
theological seminary, opened in Tehran in 1969, Shariati lectured there and
soon found a mass following. His lectures were recorded and distributed,
and his controversial ideas were discussed widely, despite the jealousy and
resentment of the traditional Shi'ite clergy. All along, the regime had allowed
some limited space for oppositional discourse within the religious community,
while cracking down much harder on the secular Left. This was part
of the overall Cold War mindset, which saw "international Communism"
as the main threat to the established power. Although Shariati was allowed
to lecture for a few years, he left the country in 1977 after a series of confrontations
with the regime. He died shortly afterward from a heart attack in
London at the age of only forty-four. Rumors implicating the regime in his
death SOon elevated his stature to that of a shahid (martyr). More than anyone
else except Khomeini, Shariati, through his writings and speeches, would become
the ideological inspiration of the 1978-79 revolution (Dabashi 1993,
102-46).
Shariati introduced an existentialist reading of the Karbala narrative that
was also informed by Heidegger's work. He elevated the concept of martyr"
dom above all else and called it the defining moment of Shi'ism (Shariati
1970, 154). He called for a revolutionary concept of Islam, one that could
challenge the monarchy and bring a new generation of Muslim thinkers like
him to power. In his search for what he considered to be an "authentic"
interpretation of Islam, Shariati castigated the external influences on Islam,
which had been many in over a thousand years of rich intellectual ferment
and cross-fertilization. In particular, he wished to drive out Greek philosophy,
Indian and Iranian mysticism, as well as Christian and Jewish theology.
He also rejected the more tolerant interpretations of Islam found in Persian
poetry (e.g., Omar Khayyam), in Muslim philosophy (e.g., Farabi (al-Farabi],
870-950; Avicenna, 980-1037), or even in Sufi mysticism (174). Finally and
most controversially for Iran's leftist youth, he rejected Marxism as a "Western
fallacy, " singling out Marx's humanism for particular attack (Shariati 1980).
Shariati's new "authentic Islam" centered on a reinterpretation of the
story of Karbala. He wrote that Hussein's martyrdom had taken place because