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Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (Paperback)

by Janet Afary (Author), Kevin B. Anderson (Author)
Key Phrases: relationship between the erastes, political spirituality, Iranian Revolution, Foucault's Writings, Maxime Rodinson (more...)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"I am very impressed by the authors' clarity of thought, meticulousness of reseaarch, and important insights. Their book's originality lies in the way it links Foucault's main ideas to the Iranian revolution, thereby illuminating one through the other. The authors remind us of Foucault's immense influence on the dominant views in the current debates on Islamism and Iran."--Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (Azar Nafisi )

"I am very impressed by the authors' clarity of thought, meticulousness of reseaarch, and important insights. Their book's originality lies in the way it links Foucault's main ideas to the Iranian revolution, thereby illuminating one through the other. The authors remind us of Foucault's immense influence on the dominant views in the current debates on Islamism and Iran."--Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran (Azar Nafisi )

Product Description

In 1978, as the protests against the Shah of Iran reached their zenith, philosopher Michel Foucault was working as a special correspondent for Corriere della Sera and le Nouvel Observateur. During his little-known stint as a journalist, Foucault traveled to Iran, met with leaders like Ayatollah Khomeini, and wrote a series of articles on the revolution. Foucault and the Iranian Revolution is the first book-length analysis of these essays on Iran, the majority of which have never before appeared in English. Accompanying the analysis are annotated translations of the Iran writings in their entirety and the at times blistering responses from such contemporaneous critics as Middle East scholar Maxime Rodinson as well as comments on the revolution by feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir.

In this important and controversial account, Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson illuminate Foucault's support of the Islamist movement. They also show how Foucault's experiences in Iran contributed to a turning point in his thought, influencing his ideas on the Enlightenment, homosexuality, and his search for political spirituality. Foucault and the Iranian Revolution informs current discussion on the divisions that have reemerged among Western intellectuals over the response to radical Islamism after September 11. Foucault's provocative writings are thus essential for understanding the history and the future of the West's relationship with Iran and, more generally, to political Islam. In their examination of these journalistic pieces, Afary and Anderson offer a surprising glimpse into the mind of a celebrated thinker.

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Product Details

Paperback: 312 pages
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; annotated edition edition (June 20, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0226007863
ISBN-13: 978-0226007861
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #383,641 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
relationship between the erastes, political spirituality

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Iranian Revolution, Foucault's Writings, Maxime Rodinson, The History of Sexuality, Women's Rights, Debating the Outcome of the Revolution, Passion Plays, Rites of Penance, Michel Foucault, Male Homosexualities, The Paradoxical World of Foucault, Foucault's Discourse, Reza Shah, United States, Middle East, National Front, Name of God, French Revolution, Constitutional Revolution, Shi'ite Islam, Iranians Dreaming, Islam Resurgent, Tehran University, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Hussein

Citations (learn more)

2 books cite this book:

Women in the Middle East: Past and Present by Nikki R. Keddie on page 180, and page 193
The Frankfurt School Revisited: And Other Essays on Politics and Society by Richard Wolin in Back Matter

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

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4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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71 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A deeply mistaken account of Foucault's interpretation of Iran, June 22, 2005

By	Todd May - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book has three elements. A full third is a compilation of Foucault's writings and interviews on Iran. It is a valuable addition to the Foucault literature. Second, there is a historical recounting of Islamism as it pertains to the Iranian revolution. I do not have the expertise to comment on this. The third element, which frames the book, is an extended argument that in Foucault's reading of the Iranian revolution his own larger philosophical perspective is revealed. This element, which I do have expertise in, is comically bad.

The authors claim that Foucault values traditional forms of life over modern ones, and thus embraces (like the radical Islamists) a return to the past. In order to make their case, the authors resort to three strategies. First, they neglect Foucault's own statements about his writings. For instance, the authors insist that he saw ancient Greek sexual life as superior to ours, which Foucault explicitly denies. Second, they engage in egregious misinterpretation. For example, they read Foucault's book on the prisons as a plea for earlier forms of punishment. The first few pages of the prison book, detailing the excruciating torture of an attempted regicide, should be enough to convince anyone of the paucity of that interpretation. Finally, they misread Foucault's own sentences, in one case (p. 16) citing a long quote and then interpreting it as meaning something opposed to what it actually says.

Foucault insisted throughout his life that his work sought to deny the view that history naturally progresses from the worse to the better. The authors seem to think that this means that his view of history was that it moved from the better to the worse. It is harder to imagine a more fundamental mistake in the interpretation of Foucault's work.

All of this is unfortunate, particularly since Foucault, normally an astute observer of events, sorely misread the Iranian revolution. This requires explanation. The authors have provided the resources on which to base such an explanation. However, given their inability to understand even the basics of Foucault's work, the explanation itself will have to await another book.

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27 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Contribution to Critical Theory, June 30, 2005

By	John Sanbonmatsu (Somerville, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Foucault and the Iranian Revolution" is by far the most important contribution to critical theory, and to Foucault studies, in years. Coming at a time of a deepening crisis in world politics as well as political philosophy, when the secular liberal ideal is dying and religious fundamentalisms of various stripes--Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu--feed like bacteria on its still moving, breathing corpse, Afary and Anderson's book offers a refreshingly sober and expansive view of the contradictions and aporias of contemporary critical theory. Concentrating on a neglected moment in Foucault's career as a journalist and political commentator, the authors amass a wealth of fascinating details, old and new, to show how Foucault's credulity toward (and even sympathies with) the most reactionary and illiberal elements of the Iranian Revolution, far from being an anomaly or sudden lapse of judgment, was instead the logical outgrowth of his own idiosyncratic theories about modernity, social movements, history, and knowledge. As the authors write: "Foucault's Orientalist impressions of the Muslim world, his selective reading and representation of Greco-Roman texts, and his hostility to modernity and its technologies of the body, led him to prefer the more traditional Islamic/Mediterranean culture to the modern culture of the West."

In short, Foucault was drawn to the radical Islamism of the Ayatollah Khomeini--rather than to the feminist and socialist forces who had helped overthrow the despised Shah--precisely because of his aversion to all modern political institutions and norms, whether liberal or radical. Islamism, which had the appearance of pure, romantic fusion or unity in the will of the people (in essence, an Iranian version of Rousseau's general will), seemed to link the Shi'ite past with a present revolutionary Now. Ironically, just as an unreflexive, orthodox Marxism had blinded an earlier generation of "fellow travelers" to Stalinism, Foucault's own anti-Marxism and anti-feminism--his refusal to identify either with the socialist tradition or with women's liberation--made him blind to the authoritarian strain within Islamism. Although Foucault's defenders, and there are many today, will deny that the great French theorist had any flaws as a social critic, what comes through in Afary and Anderson's narrative is the portrait of an intellectual whose own political isolation and personal arrogance made him susceptible to the worst kind of idealism.

The poststructuralist revolution in theoretical thought, which Foucault more than any other thinker helped lead, has done serious damage to our ability both to comprehend the meaning of historical events and to render sound moral and political judgments concerning their meaning. This, to me, is the implicit lesson of Afary and Anderson's important and indispensable book. This, and the authors' own exemplary conduct as theorists and historians: by scrupulously avoiding polemic, complicating our view of Islam, and maintaining a moral center in their narrative, the authors remind us that, by reaffirming its socialist feminist roots, critical or radical theory can yet serve as an antidote both to Western imperialism on one side and Islamism (or apologia for Islamism) on the other. "Foucault and the Iranian Revolution" is therefore must reading for anyone interested in the state of theory, or the state of the world.

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3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great at pointing out Foucault's porblematic political turn, January 9, 2007

By	Laurie Louise Rojas (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is an absolute introduction to understanding the events that shaped the Iranian Revolution (as a revolution from the Right) and the relationship that Foucault's arguments have to international political sphere.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars radical Islamism versus compassionate conservatives
This is a timely publication and an excellent contribution to Foucault studies. If you are interested in anything related to Foucault this is a must read. Read more

Published on July 21, 2005 by Sharif Islam

5.0 out of 5 stars Fetishism and cultural imperialism, Foucault's mission
This book is excellent! It is about time someone wrote the real account of how western intellectuals who knew too little about the culture and history of Iran, implicated... Read more

Published on July 12, 2005 by Ban

5.0 out of 5 stars Prophet of leftist Islamism
Foucalt loved Islamism, he felt the Iranian revolution would in a postmodern sense bring about a new society with seperate but equal situations for women, where a perfect utopian... Read more

Published on June 18, 2005 by Seth J. Frantzman

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