Leader Urges Involvement of Iranian Women in Decision-Making
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei called for the employment of scholarly, efficient, experienced, intellectual, wise and knowledgeable women of Iran in various decision-making posts.
A group of prominent Iranian women met with Ayatollah Khamenei ahead of the auspicious birth anniversary of Lady Fatimah Zahra (SA) at the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah of Tehran on Wednesday.
“God willing, the meeting here today will have numerous benefits for our future and our way of thinking. I am very happy that we were able to hold this meeting this year. This meeting was exclusively for women. Up until this moment, it has been overflowing with outstanding, excellent ideas. The matters discussed by the women were very good, and I personally, truly benefited from them,” the Leader said in the gathering.
“Some recommendations were made. God willing, a solution will be found for these matters. Some of these suggestions may be related to the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. They may need to be discussed there or in other places, especially the issue of employing our intelligent, skilled, experienced, knowledgeable, scholarly, wise, and perceptive women in different places in the country where decisions are made. This is an important matter. Of course, this issue has occupied my mind. We need to find a way for this. God willing, we shall find a way. We will see what can be done,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.
“On the issue of women, our stance towards the hypocritical Western claimants is a position of demand, not defense. There was a time many years ago, when a number of students at a university asked me, ‘What do you have to say for yourself in defense of such and such a case?’ I told them, ‘I don’t have a defense. I have an attack.’ That is how it is with the issue of women,” the Leader added.
“The world is to blame. When I say ‘the world’ I mean the Western world, Western philosophy, and the existing Western culture. Of course, (what I am talking about) is the modernized West. I am not concerned about the historical West. That is a whole different matter. The modernized West is the one that has expressed its opinion on all aspects of life since about 200 years ago. We demand answers from them. They are guilty with regards to the issue of women; they are to blame. They have really inflicted harm. They have committed crimes,” Ayatollah Khamenei underlined.
Ayatollah Khamenei then expressed hope that with endeavors made by prominent Iranian women to introduce Islam to the West, the religion’s view toward women will have an impact on the general public there.
Making a reference to the verses of the Holy Quran, the Leader said equality between men and women is among the unquestionable principles of Islam. “In Islam’s moral values, there is no difference between men and women,” he stated.
The Leader also pointed out that men and women have different, yet balanced, roles and responsibilities in Islam, saying, “Unlike the deeply patriarchal Western capitalist system, in Islam, both men and women are important in some issues and have (equal) legal, intellectual, theoretical and practical privileges.”