In 1977 , Italian newspaper '' Corriere della sera '' asked Foucault to write a column for them . In doing so , in 1978 he travelled to Tehran in Iran , days after the Black Friday massacre . Documenting the developing Iranian Revolution , he met with opposition leaders such as Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari and Mehdi Bazargan , and discovered the popular support for Islamism . Returning to France , he was one of the journalists who visited the Ayatollah Khomeini , before visiting Tehran . His articles expressed awe of Khomeini 's Islamist movement , for which he was widely criticised in the French press , including by Iranian expatriates . Foucault 's response was that Islamism was to become a major political force in the region , and that the West must treat it with respect rather than hostility . In April 1978 , Foucault traveled to Japan , where he studied Zen Buddhism under Omori Sogen at the Seionji temple in Uenohara
Black Friday
Black Friday (1978)
Michel Foucault