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The politics of un‐truth and the assemblage of sexuality: Revisiting the Foucauldian methodology in studying sexuality in post‐revolutionary Iran
Author(s) -
RezaeiToroghi Mehran
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
sexuality, gender and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2639-5355
DOI - 10.1002/sgp2.12010
Subject(s) - human sexuality , politics , confession (law) , sociology , epistemology , context (archaeology) , islam , social science , gender studies , law , political science , philosophy , history , theology , archaeology
Sexuality studies in Iran have been influenced by Foucauldian social constructivism. Given that this theory is based on western history and its special politics of truth, the significant question is, how could we apply this theoretical framework, considering the different politics of truth in Iran? While truth‐telling has a leading role in constructing modern sexuality in European countries (through Parrhesia, confession, interviews), discouragement to tell the truth about sex and avoid confession is a common maxim strongly advised by Islamic moral codes, juridical system, sexual language, social relations, and the official policies. To illustrate this difference, I will study how a distinctive strategy is dominated in the jurisprudential/legal, linguistic, and political context. Nonetheless, due to modernization of the society, another “will to know” is exercised by political and civil society to incite people to discourse. Accordingly, I suggest a complicated juxtaposition of two regimes of truth in Iran, which work paradoxically. The idea of assemblage as a set of relations, which are extending and contingent would be explicative in understanding this complexity.