'A One Man 50 Year Failed Revolution' by Steve

Michel Foucault, the influential French philosopher known for his critiques of power, knowledge, and modernity, found in the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979 a profound intellectual fascination. This event, which toppled the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and ushered in an Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, served as a real-world laboratory for Foucault's ideas about resistance, spirituality, and alternatives to Western liberalism.

Foucault's engagement with the revolution, documented in his journalistic writings for Italian and French newspapers, positioned it as a testing ground for an unlikely Islamist-socialist alliance—a coalition of religious fervor and leftist anti-imperialism that challenged global systems of domination. A failed experiment that ended this weekend. 

Foucault's legacy is complicated by later allegations of personal misconduct, including claims of child sexual abuse in Tunisia during the late 1960s, which have sparked debates about separating the thinker from the man.

Foucault's interpretation of the Iranian Revolution, its role in his philosophical project, the dynamics of the Islamist-socialist alliance, and the shadow cast by the Tunisian controversies, argue that while the revolution illuminated Foucault's anti-modernist vision, his personal life raises ethical questions about his authority on liberation.

Foucault's involvement with the Iranian Revolution began in 1978 when he was commissioned by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera to report on the escalating protests against the Shah's regime.

At the time, Iran was a flashpoint of anti-imperialist struggle: the Shah's Western-backed modernization efforts, including rapid industrialization and secular reforms, had alienated vast segments of society, from urban workers to rural clerics. Foucault traveled to Iran twice that year, in September and November, and even met Khomeini in exile near Paris. His writings, later compiled and analyzed in works like Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson's Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, reveal a philosopher captivated by the uprising's unique character.

Unlike traditional Marxist revolutions driven by class struggle or liberal uprisings seeking democratic reforms, Foucault saw Iran's movement as embodying "political spirituality"—a fusion of religious zeal and collective will that transcended materialist politics.

In essays such as "What Are the Iranians Dreaming About?" (1978), Foucault described the revolution as a rejection of both Western capitalism and Soviet-style socialism, offering instead a "spiritual" insurrection against global hegemony.

He argued that the protesters' willingness to face death en masse—millions marching under the banner of Islam—represented a form of authenticity absent in modern, rationalized societies. This "fascination with the discourse of death as a path toward authenticity and salvation" aligned with Foucault's broader critique of Enlightenment rationality, which he viewed as a disciplining force that imprisoned the human spirit.

For Foucault, Iran was not merely a geopolitical event but a philosophical experiment: a site where pre-modern traditions could dismantle the "thoroughly materialistic world" of modernity.

He predicted it would "set the entire region afire," overturning unstable regimes and disturbing established powers, including the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

Central to Foucault's analysis was the revolution's role as a testing ground for an Islamist-socialist alliance. The uprising united disparate factions: Islamist clerics, inspired by Khomeini's vision of an Islamic government; leftist groups, including Marxists and socialists from the Tudeh Party; and secular nationalists opposed to the Shah's authoritarianism and U.S. imperialism.

This coalition was temporary but potent, forged in shared opposition to the Pahlavi regime's corruption, economic inequality, and cultural Westernization. Foucault highlighted the "absolutely unified collective will" that bridged these ideologies, noting how religious rituals—such as mass prayers and self-flagellation during Ashura—mobilized the masses alongside socialist demands for workers' rights and land reform.

He saw this as a radical departure from Western revolutionary models, where spirituality infused politics, creating a "counter-discourse" to both liberalism and Marxism.

Critics, however, argue that Foucault romanticized this alliance, ignoring its inherent tensions and the eventual dominance of Islamism. Afary and Anderson contend that his enthusiasm stemmed from a "perplexing affinity" between his anti-modernism and Islamist fundamentalism, both rejecting Enlightenment values like individualism and secularism.

Indeed, post-revolution, the alliance fractured: Khomeini's regime purged leftists, executing thousands in the 1980s, and imposed strict theocratic rule that suppressed women's rights and dissent—issues Foucault downplayed, dismissing feminist warnings as Western bias.

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, in Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution After the Enlightenment, defends Foucault by emphasizing his focus on the event's ambiguity, not its outcomes, as an "anti-teleological" moment where unknown possibilities emerged.

Yet, Foucault's prediction of a liberating "political spirituality" proved naive, as the revolution evolved into a repressive state, blending religious authority with state power in ways that echoed his own theories of biopolitics and governmentality.

Foucault's Iranian writings also reflect his evolving thought on power and subjectivity. In works like Discipline and Punish (1975) and The History of Sexuality (1976), he critiqued how modern institutions—prisons, schools, and sexual norms—produce docile subjects. The Iranian Revolution, with its mass defiance, seemed to offer a way out: a "revolt against politics" that reshaped subjectivity through spiritual practice.

He admired Khomeini as a "mythical leader" embodying this collective will, not as a theocrat but as a symbol of transgression against global domination.

This view aligned with his interest in non-Western spiritualities, including early Christian monasticism, as alternatives to Western rationalism.

However, his optimism blinded him to the revolution's gender dynamics: while he noted women's participation in veils as a form of resistance, he overlooked how Islamism would enforce patriarchal controls, such as mandatory hijab and gender segregation.

Complicating Foucault's intellectual legacy are allegations of personal misconduct in Tunisia, where he taught at the University of Tunis from 1966 to 1968. In 2021, French essayist Guy Sorman claimed that Foucault sexually abused prepubescent boys, paying them for encounters in graveyards near Sidi Bou Said.

Sorman described witnessing Foucault throwing money at children aged eight to ten, arranging meetings at cemeteries for sexual acts on gravestones, asserting that "the question of consent wasn’t even raised."

These accusations, echoed in reports from The Sunday Times and Al Jazeera, have fueled debates about Foucault's hypocrisy: a thinker who deconstructed power dynamics allegedly exploiting vulnerable children in a colonial context.

However, these claims have been heavily contested. Investigations, including by L'Express, reveal inconsistencies: Sorman initially dated the events to 1969, but Foucault had left Tunisia in 1968 for a position in France.
Sorman later backtracked, admitting the cemetery details were rumors and expressing disinterest in Foucault, leading critics to label the story a "hoax" or media hype.

Scholars like Heather Brunskell-Evans argue the allegations are "phantasmagorical," debunked by timeline errors and lack of evidence, though they persist in partisan attacks framing Foucault as a "paedophile rapist."

Tunisians have long rumored such behavior among French intellectuals in the neocolonial era, linking Foucault to figures like André Gide, but no concrete proof has emerged.