Foucault and Iran
David Frum on Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, by Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson. Fascinating.
Thanks: Jogo
Added links (c/o Noga and an anonymous commenter): Edward Said and the Iranian Revolution by David Zarnett; The philosopher and the ayatollah by Wesley Yang.
Comments
Look here.
Foucualt kept up his apologetics for Iran's revolution until he spent 4 months in Iran, after which he fell silent.
My beef with him is that silence. Unlike Orwell, who, upon waking up from the dream of communism, devoted his thoughts and writings to debunk these theories of justice, Foucault chose to retreat into shroud of silence. He (must have) realized how wrong he was, yet could not bring himself to agitate against it.
All in all, Foucault was not really interested in politics. And this foray into politics was a complete failure. His main strengh and usefulness lie in the unique way of analysing texts. While most readers are looking following the narrative, he chose to examine the margins.
I also think you are right in your ambivalence about Foucault. I can't find it now, but there's a really interesting piece by Richard Bernstein about Foucault which captures this well.
I am not sure the Burumu-Ash/Ramadan analogy works though. Ramadan presents himself as fitting into the same European/cosmpolitan tradition that Baruma-Ash come from - whether he is honest in that or cynical, I'm not sure, but it's worked. Whereas Khomeini presented himself as utterly radically other to Western modernity, which is what appealed to Foucault. (Of course, this was cynicism from the Mullah too, as Islamism is profoundly modern.)
More on this later, got to rush
"There is a long tradition of Western intellectuals going abroad to sing the praises of revolutionaries in distant lands and finding in them the realization of their own intellectual hopes. But the irony of Foucault's embrace of the Iranian Revolution was that the earlier intellectuals who had sung hymns to tyrants tended to share a set of beliefs in the kind of absolutes — Marxism, humanism, rationality — that Foucault had made it his life's work to overturn. Rather than pronounce from on high, Foucault sought to listen to what he took to be the authentic voice of marginal people in revolt and let it speak through him. In practice, this turned out to be a distinction without a difference.
Anderson says that the debate over these 25- year-old writings has relevance when some leftists focus more energy on criticizing an administration they scorn than on speaking against a radical Islamist movement that also violates all their cherished ideals.
"It's not that radical Islamism is getting a pass from Western progressives and liberals, but it is the case that many are not being critical enough," says Anderson. When certain polemicists are spreading simplistic ideas about "Islamo-Fascism," he continues, "there's a tendency to say that this isn't so. But the fact is that while radical Islamism has many features and faces, everywhere it is antifeminist, everywhere it is authoritarian, and everywhere it is intolerant of other religions and other interpretations of Islam."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/06/12/the_philosopher_and_the_ayatollah/?page=1
A much better piece than this one about Foucaulth (although Foucault gets an honerable mention for his willful blindness,)posted on the Democratiya Book Review, David Zarnett on Edward Said's aiding and abetting of the Iranian Revolution:
http://www.democratiya.com/review.asp?reviews_id=92
It takes a lot of courage to admit one was wrong, and not many are willing to do that.