TEHRAN - The Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, met with a group of prominent Iranian women on Wednesday and addressed a variety of issues related to women. 

At the beginning of his speech, Ayatollah Khamenei expressed satisfaction with the holding of a meeting that is exclusively for women. “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. 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,” he said, according to a readout of the meeting put out by khamenei.ir. 

He added, “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.”

Western hypocrisy against Women

Ayatollah Khamenei castigated the “decadent Western culture” and its crimes against women. “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 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.”

He added, “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 regard to the issue of women; they are to blame. They have really inflicted harm. They have committed crimes.”

Ayatollah Khamenei then pointed to Islam’s view toward women. He said, “Unlike the deeply patriarchal Western capitalist system, in Islam, both men and women are prominent and have legal, intellectual, theoretical and practical privileges. But the Westerners untruthfully attribute their inherent patriarchy to Islam.” 

Two Western misuses of women

The Leader said two things constitute an example of the West’s misuse of women: the field of work and the pleasure-centric view of women. “The main purpose of raising the issue of women's freedom in the West was to drag them from the home to the factory to use women as cheap labor,” he said. 

The Leader said the pleasure-centric view is another fundamental blow to women. “In this truly sad story, the capitalist system, using a variety of methods, convinces the woman that her benefit and value lies in the behavior that makes her sexual appeal more prominent and more attractive to the men on the street. And this is the biggest blow to the dignity and status of women,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. 

Captivity in the name of freedom

Referring to the statistics and facts that even the official centers of Western countries announce, he called the West's claim about defending women's rights the ultimate insolence. “The alleged freedom of the capitalist system is the same as ‘captivity and insult’ to women, and one is ashamed to even mention some incidents in the West,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted. 

Promoting Islam’s view on women

Ayatollah Khamenei, while repudiating the West’s view on women, underlined the need to promote Islam’s attitude toward women. 

Expressing his satisfaction with the presence of a large number of scholarly, wise and faithful women in the country, Ayatollah Khamenei called it necessary to explain and expose the disastrous view of the West on the issue of gender and women.

“By using virtual communication, present Islam's view on the issue of men and women in the form of short and expressive propositions and initiatives such as creating hashtags these facts to those who are thirsty, especially in Islamic countries,” he said. 

Hijab a Sharia necessity

The Leader also referred to the issue of the hijab (veil), describing it as an inviolable Sharia-mandated necessity. “Hijab is undoubtedly an inviolable necessity, but this inviolable necessity should not cause those who do not fully observe hijab to be accused of being irreligious or counter-revolutionary,” he remarked. 

Ayatollah Khamenei described those who do not observe hijab entirely as being “our women and girls” who also attend religious and revolutionary ceremonies. 

“Weak hijab is not a right thing, but it does not make that person to be considered outside the circle of religion and Revolution,” he added. 

Female champions: the best advertisement for hijab

“The best advertisement for the hijab is that our sports girl becomes a champion and raises her country's flag in front of international cameras while standing on the champion's podium with a hijab,” he said. 

He also said those women who had improper hijab stood up to the calls for protest against the hijab.