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

Processions, Passion Plays, and Rites of Penance 63
of Ashura was "revolt and jihad for the devastation of the regime of Yazid"
(209). He wrote that Hussein knew that death at the hands of his enemies
would mark them for life. They became "transgressors," who had murdered
the grandson of Muhammad. Hussein realized that he could achieve more by
facing martyrdom at the hands of his enemies (and tainting their reputation)
than by living. This was not a type of death through which God forgave the
sins of humanity; it was one that pointed toward revenge, a death that marked
the enemy as a horrible sinner: "It is in this way that the dying of a human
being guarantees the life of a nation" (213).
According to Shariati, martyrdom was thus "the only reason for existence"
and a "goal in itself." It was "an invitation to all generations, in all ages, if you
cannot kill your oppressor, then die." Martyrdom was so noble in Islam that
the corpse required no ritual bath. The martyr was also under no obligation
"to give an account of himself on the day oOudgment" (Shariati 1970, 214).
Martyrdom was a pass straight to heaven.21 Such thinking was soon to become
influential among leftists. In January 1974, when Khosrow Golsorkhi,
a poet and journalist, was tried and condemned by a military tribunal for an
attempt on the shah's life, he used the occasion to declare that the objectives
of Marxism and Islam were one and the same. He called the Shi'ite saint Ali
"the world's first socialist" and argued further as follows:
The life ofImam Hussein is similar to ours, as we stand trial in this court, will­
ing to sacrifice our lives for the deprived people of our nation. He was in the
minority, while Yazid had ruled in the royal court, had an army, a government,
and power. [Hussein] stood fast and was martyred. Although Yazid occupied a
brief moment of history, what remained for all time was the path of Hussein,
not the government ofYazid. The masses have continued and will continue
the perseverance of Hussein, not the government ofYazid . .. . In this way, in
a Marxist society, genuine Islam can be justified as a superstructure, and we
approve of such an Islam, the Islam of Hussein and the Islam of Imam Ali.
(cited in Nabavi 2001, 263)
Reenacting the Ka rbala Paradigm: The Revolution
After Shariati's death in 1977, Khomeini, long respected for his opposition
to the shah and his austere lifestyle in exile, quickly assumed the mantle of
leadership within the Islamist opposition.22 The shah had long been criticized
by the international community for his extensive violations of human
rights, including the arrest and torture of political opponents. In 1977, after
the election of Jimmy Carter to the u.s. presidency, the shah also came