Michel Foucault And The Iranian Revolution: Reflections on Uprising, Resistance and Politics

Abstract

This article analyzes the interpretation proposed by Michel Foucault of the Iranian Revolution, i.e. the popular uprisings and revolts that took place in Iran in 1978 and their consequences in the formation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, with the aim of systematizing the thought of the philosopher about this question and of going further in a highly potent matrix in his production which unfortunately has been partly eclipsed by the shallow and hasty criticisms it received. For this purpose, I will proceed to the exam of the problematic cores and the conceptual categories arising from what can be called Foucault’s dossier Iran (amongst others, power, politics, uprising, resistance, sociopolitical movements, revolution, subjectivity, history, religion as a political factor, political spirituality, will and the relationship modernity-tradition) accounting for the relationship between the subject, politics and history. Likewise, I will highlight the main axes of that interpretation following the link with the researches and central lines that Foucault is developing at that moment, in particular, the relationship he establishes between life, government and truth and the reformulation of the problem of power in terms of the problem of government which will enable him to deploy that aspect of his analyses of power and politics relating to resistance, freedom and the critique of the present. Finally, I will propose an assessment in perspective, underlining the scope and the potentialities of the Foucauldian ideas about these events.