TEHRAN- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has emphasized Iran's civilizational background while reiterating that “human knowledge” is grateful to “Iranian scientists.”

President Raisi made the comments while delivering a speech at the Transforming Education Summit, which was held in New York on Monday afternoon with assistance from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 

Ayatollah Raisi led a team that traveled to New York to attend the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in New York on Monday in order to attend and address the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in the United States, Raisi described the visit as an opportunity to voice the views and opinions of the Islamic Republic, emphasizing, “The United Nations should be the organization of the nations, not the organization of powerful administrations.”

The president described attending the UNGA as a desired platform for discussing the problems of today's world and finding collective solutions to solve them.

Raisi then went on to describe the oppressive and coercive sanctions as a tactic of major world powers to put pressure on other nations, noting, “Sanctions are detrimental to nations and are in conflict with peace and security.”

The president described sanctions, terrorism and war as manifestations of unilateralism, stating, “Unilateralism causes suffering of human societies.”

The president stated during his address at the UNESCO meeting that family, justice, and spirituality must all be taken into consideration as education advances.

The complete text of Dr Raisi's speech was made available on the president's website as follows:

“The Almighty God appointed a Prophet from amongst the illiterate to read HIS verses to them and cleanse and purify them and instruct them in HIS Book and Wisdom, whereas they used to dwell in darkness before”

Ladies and Gentlemen;
Human knowledge takes pride in Iranian scientists. Iran’s history of civilization started with science and knowledge and elevated by the Islamic culture which based its pillars on heavenly thoughts. The Holy religion of Islam is constantly inviting human beings to education with the aim of administration of justice and expansion of spirituality.

Progress and development are among the major concerns of all countries. Although on different occasions countries have implemented international recommendations and prescriptions in this regard, concurrently some serious challenges, too, have emerged for the indigenous and national cultures of the countries of the world.

We believe that in order to face educational challenges, we need to identify their root causes. We have been fundamentally critical of the international bodies' reading and interpretation of the global contemporary history and their classification of issues. If our cause is to create a dignified life and a safe world, we should refrain from providing a unilateral gathering of globalization, and instead, emphasize on the role-playing of all parties within the framework of multilateral approaches.

In brief, the Islamic Republic of Iran believes that:

– Development, education, family, justice and spirituality should not be delved into as separate unrelated entities.

– Any initiative regarding development and satisfaction of human needs should also include educational and moral requirements as well.  At the same time, family should be placed at the center of the initiative. Of course, when we say family, we mean it in the real sense of the word and not self-made versions of family which lead to extinction of humanity.

– Development, when not accompanied by spirituality and ethics, will not be sustainable and will lead to degeneration of the society.

– Cultural dominance and knowledge blockade are the worst types of oppression and injustice.

Unfortunately, the culture of hegemony sees its benefits in preventing other countries from development and by creating an unfair global order, misusing the international bodies and setting up their own cultural and thought systems try to prevent other countries from progress and development.

This is our question: Should education and principally human beings be at the service of sustainable development or should sustainable development be placed at the service of human beings? If educational transformation does not lead to human progress and development, it will only bring about humanity’s weakness.

We expect the international bodies to respect the right to cultural and educational sovereignty of all countries and to protect them against cultural invasion. We believe that educational transformation without paying attention to "family, justice and spirituality" would not be possible.

We should focus on moral values including honoring the family, respect to the environment, justice, rejection of violence and extremism, creating a safe, moral, clean and efficient cyber space as our priorities for educational transformation.

Accordingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran has codified its educational transformation document based on Iranian-Islamic educational philosophy and, thus, has not solely relied upon the one-dimensional secular approaches mentioned in the 2030 Document. With the aim of enhancing quality in Iran's new educational system, we have moved from focusing on a memorization-based curriculum to one based on research, innovation, skill acquisition and commitment to education and cultural and religious values.
While committing to its principled policies, the Islamic Republic of Iran also stands ready to ensure interaction dialogue with others within the framework of its educational system which is based on exalted and elevated human values.”