At the height of the Iranian revolution in the winter of 1979, French
Philosopher, Michel
Foucault, described what he was seeing in Tehran as "perhaps the first
great insurrection against global systems, the form of revolt that is the
most novel and the most insane."

"Islam," he wrote, "which is not simply a religion, but an entire way of
life, an adherence to a history and a civilization, has a good chance to
become a gigantic powder keg, at the level of hundreds of millions of men."

Such praising words about the Iranian uprising are probably the very reason
few have even heard of Foucault's dispatches from Tehran for the Italian
newspaper, Corriere Dela Sera, in 1978-79.

Twenty-nine winters later, the Islamic Republic of Iran is more
independent, stable, confident and technologically advanced than ever,
while it has remained as the most serious and continuous challenge to the
U.S. hegemony in the world.

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