From Youth to Mujahideen: Disciplinary Techniques in the Discourse of Armed Groups Before the Revolution (Case Study of the People's Mojahedin Organization)

Drawing on Michel Foucault's theoretical framework and employing historical discourse analysis, this article examines the process of producing the "mujahid" subject within the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) during the 1960s and 1970s. The central research question investigates how the PMOI, through a set of disciplinary techniques, transformed young individuals into obedient, self-sacrificing subjects willing to devote their lives to organizational goals. To answer this question, the study analyzes internal organizational documents, ideological publications, training materials, and memoirs of former members, focusing on Foucaultian concepts of the body, visibility, discipline, subjection, and subjectification.

The findings reveal that the PMOI systematically reconstructed members' identities through an interconnected network of disciplinary techniques including team houses, continuous surveillance, meticulous regulation of daily life, practices of criticism and self-criticism, boycott (social ostracism), ideological and military training, and self-cultivation programs. These techniques operated by rendering individuals constantly visible and exercising control over their bodies, minds, and emotions, thereby facilitating the internalization of organizational norms. Within this discourse, the body was understood as an object to be intervened upon and politically trained, while discipline functioned as the primary technology for producing the mujahid subject.

The results demonstrate that the formation of the mujahid subject cannot be understood merely as the product of adopting a political ideology. Rather, it must be recognized as the outcome of a complex interplay of micro-physical mechanisms of power operating within the organizational structure. From this perspective, the PMOI was not simply a political organization but a site for the exercise of disciplinary techniques and the production of revolutionary subjects, in which members' individuality was transformed in the service of reconstructing organizational identity. Events such as the June 1963 uprising and the Siahkal incident served as epistemic turning points that transformed armed struggle from an abstract theoretical possibility into a sacred historical necessity. The article concludes by suggesting that future research should explore the role of gender, familial relations, and comparative cases in other regional contexts.iques operated by rendering individuals constantly visible and exercising control over their bodies, minds, and emotions, thereby facilitating the internalization of organizational norms. Within this discourse, the body was understood as an object to be intervened upon and politically trained, while discipline functioned as the primary technology for producing the mujahid subject.

The results demonstrate that the formation of the mujahid subject cannot be understood merely as the product of adopting a political ideology. Rather, it must be recognized as the outcome of a complex interplay of micro-physical mechanisms of power operating within the organizational structure. From this perspective, the PMOI was not simply a political organization but a site for the exercise of disciplinary techniques and the production of revolutionary subjects, in which members' individuality was transformed in the service of reconstructing organizational identity. Events such as the June 1963 uprising and the Siahkal incident served as epistemic turning points that transformed armed struggle from an abstract theoretical possibility into a sacred historical necessity. The article concludes by suggesting that future research should explore the role of gender, familial relations, and comparative cases in other regional contexts.Drawing on Michel Foucault's theoretical framework and employing historical discourse analysis, this article examines the process of producing the "mujahid" subject within the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) during the 1960s and 1970s. The central research question investigates how the PMOI, through a set of disciplinary techniques, transformed young individuals into obedient, self-sacrificing subjects willing to devote their lives to organizational goals. To answer this question, the study analyzes internal organizational documents, ideological publications, training materials, and memoirs of former members, focusing on Foucaultian concepts of the body, visibility, discipline, subjection, and subjectification.

The findings reveal that the PMOI systematically reconstructed members' identities through an interconnected network of disciplinary techniques including team houses, continuous surveillance, meticulous regulation of daily life, practices of criticism and self-criticism, boycott (social ostracism), ideological and military training, and self-cultivation programs. These techniques operated by rendering individuals constantly visible and exercising control over their bodies, minds, and emotions, thereby facilitating the internalization of organizational norms. Within this discourse, the body was understood as an object to be intervened upon and politically trained, while discipline functioned as the primary technology for producing the mujahid subject.

The results demonstrate that the formation of the mujahid subject cannot be understood merely as the product of adopting a political ideology. Rather, it must be recognized as the outcome of a complex interplay of micro-physical mechanisms of power operating within the organizational structure. From this perspective, the PMOI was not simply a political organization but a site for the exercise of disciplinary techniques and the production of revolutionary subjects, in which members' individuality was transformed in the service of reconstructing organizational identity. Events such as the June 1963 uprising and the Siahkal incident served as epistemic turning points that transformed armed struggle from an abstract theoretical possibility into a sacred historical necessity. The article concludes by suggesting that future research should explore the role of gender, familial relations, and comparative cases in other regional contexts.iques operated by rendering individuals constantly visible and exercising control over their bodies, minds, and emotions, thereby facilitating the internalization of organizational norms. Within this discourse, the body was understood as an object to be intervened upon and politically trained, while discipline functioned as the primary technology for producing the mujahid subject.