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

Visits to Iran and Controversies with " Atoussa H." and Maxime Rodinson 85
centuries, never ceased to give an irreducible strength to everything frorp the
depths of a people that can oppose state power" ("Tehran," app., 203; em­
phasis added). Here all qualifiers were removed, and the Shi'ite clergy stood
alone as a popularly rooted force that had fought tyranny over the centuries.
Additionally, in using the term irreducible to refer to Shi'ite Islam, Foucault
seemed to make a philosophical point. As we will see below, he would em­
ploy the term irreducible at several crucial junctures in his writings on Iran,
using it, for example, as an adjective referring to Khomeini. Two basic mean­
ings were probably intended here: (1) Something that is irreducible cannot
be reduced (essentialized) to something more basic, or split into constituent
elements; thus, Islamism was not a mere ideology behind which lurked "real"
economic or social contra d ictions, as a "reductionist" Marxist might suggest.
(2) Something that is irreducible cannot easily be co-opted, subdued, or conquered,
in the sense of a fortress that cannot be reduced by its enemies. And as
we saw in chapter 1, the notion of irreducibility had already become a crucial
aspect of Foucault's theory of resistance, articulated two years earlier in the
History of Sexuality.
Foucault's Meeting with Ayatollah Khomeini and "Political
Spirituality"
Almost immediately after Khomeini's arrival in France on October 6, Fou­
cault went to see Bani-Sadr, hoping to be granted an interview with the Ay­
atollah. According to his biographer, Didier Eribon, "Foucault asked Bani­
Sadr to explain to the ayatollah that it would be better to avoid denouncing
the shah too violently because he would risk immediate expulsion" (1991,
285-86). Khomeini did in fa ct soften his language on this and other issues,
as mentioned above. Some days later, Foucault was granted a meeting with
Khomeini at his residence outside Paris:
During a visit to Neauphles with Ahmad Salamatian and Thierry Mignon,
Foucault witnessed a minor incident. A mullah from Khomeini's entourage
wanted to prevent a German journalist from entering the yard because she was
not veiled. Salamatian protested : "Is that the image you want to give of your
movement?" The ayatollah's son and son-in-law intervened, reproaching the
mullah for having been too zealous. The German journalist was allowed to
enter. During their return trip in the car, Foucault said how impressed he had
been, while in Iran, to see that wearing the veil was a political gesture; women
who were not in the habit of wearing it insisted on putting it on to participate
in demonstrations. (Eribon 1991, 286)