On 25 Sep, 2007, at 11:48 AM, ravi wrote:
>
> I cannot claim to peer in Ahmedinejad's brain, but I think Michael
> Smith's point about acts being considered illegal (not existential
> states or attributes) is relevant -- one could read him as stating
> that Iran[ians] does not subscribe to that particular form of
> classification [of sexual identity], <snip happens> ...
The "he" (above) in "read him as stating" is young Ahmad, not the wise Mr. Smith.
--ravi
^^^^^^^ CB: Yea, this seems plausible . Otherwise, Ahmedinejad's statement is a bit too weird. Ahmedinejad might be taking a sort of postmod point of view. He is a professor, no ?
On PEN-L Jim Devine said:
Ahmadinejad says:
> > Pressed by Dean Coatsworth on the
> > original question about the rights
> > of gay men and lesbians in Iran,
> > Mr. Ahmadinejad said: "In Iran, we
> > don't have homosexuals like in your
> > country. We don't have that in our
> > country."
is it possible that he, like the ancient Greeks that we're all supposed to admire so much, doesn't see homosexual people as existing as much as homosexual _behaviors_ that some engage in? Isn't it Foucault who argues that the idea of "homosexuals" as a separate group within society is of relatively recent origin?
Of course, I'd guess that the state represses gays & Lesbians in Iran, no matter what Ahmadinejad's theoretical vision is. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.