Speech in Meeting with a Group of Doctors, Nurses, and Staff of Higher Education and Medical Centers

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

I extend my congratulations and greetings to all of you brothers and sisters who have come here from various places and different service sectors on the occasion of the birth of Zainab al-Kubra (peace be upon her), the great lady of Islamic history. I welcome all of you. The gathering of nurses, doctors, social workers, and the collective of servants to the weak and sick are deserving of respect and honor from the people and officials.

We have passed through the difficult period of war. It is during such times that the value of individuals and various sectors becomes clear. Today, after enduring a period full of trials, hardships, and tests, we can judge our people in general and also some of the sectors that had prominent and special responsibilities. Our nurses are among these; because they face patients, and what they exhibit is service and kindness, and what they encounter is hardship and suffering. This is one of the great tests of humanity, to face hardship, suffering, and pain, and to show patience, composure, kindness, and service.

On the occasion of the birth of Zainab al-Kubra (peace be upon her), who stands at the pinnacle of human dignity and the value of an individual, it is appropriate that we honor Nurse's Day and commend nurses—both women and men—for their profession and the difficult test they face in this job, and for the services they have provided during the war, before it, and after it, and will continue to provide in the future.

Doctors, who are among the sensitive sectors of society and can be great servants, hold the lives and health of people in their hands. During the war, they passed good tests, and some doctors displayed character and dignity on the battlefield that is exemplary, while others have provided numerous services. Individuals who deviate from the correct method in any profession should not be the basis for judgment. Judgment should be based on the work of those who are faithful to the integrity and honesty required by their profession. Nurses and social workers in the welfare organization, who face challenges with the disabled, the elderly, and the underprivileged, are also engaged in striving, testing, and practicing human perfection.

The moments that pass over a person, during which efforts are made for lofty human and divine goals, are blessed moments. Everyone should know that those difficult moments and hours are exercises in human perfection and are not wasted. These moments lead to growth, empowerment, and closeness to the Almighty God and are full of blessings. This is the human value and advanced culture of society, which will be the focus of my speech today.

Here, we must honor the precious and dear martyrs throughout the country and the cities and regions from which you brothers and sisters have come. It was these valuable efforts and services and your unconditional presence on the battlefields and behind the front lines and in the revolution that rooted and strengthened the glorious Islamic Revolution, and today, despite all the dark propaganda and the murky atmosphere created around this revolution, the brilliance of the Islamic Revolution has dazzled eyes around the world.

What I find necessary to mention is that all the people of the country, especially the cultured and educated classes, should know that the independence of a nation is not achieved without cultural independence. If a nation is not politically influenced by great powers and achieves complete economic self-sufficiency, but the culture, ethics, beliefs, and ideas of the enemies and foreigners spread and grow among this nation, it cannot claim independence.

In the world, the reins of culture are in the hands of a few who determine the style of dress, lifestyle, behavior, ethics, and knowledge for innocent and unaware people all over the world. If a nation can protect itself from the spread of the poisonous cultural wave crafted by foreigners, it will be independent; but if it cannot and falls under the influence of foreign cultural dominance, it will be a dependent and captive nation; a nation whose political and economic independence efforts will also be influenced by those who hold the reins of culture.

Today, hundreds of radio stations and hundreds of newspapers and magazines around the world are published daily and weekly to spread the desired culture of the great powers and the culture of global arrogance among nations. If someone opposes this culture, their enmity towards him is much greater than towards someone who violates their political decisions, because they know that the impact of culture is deeper and more decisive.

You may ask why we should avoid Western and European and American culture and why we should close our minds to it? This is a valid question that people have somewhat understood after the revolution; however, I will present a brief statement on this matter:

Western culture is a culture that plans for the corruption of humanity, a culture of enmity and hatred towards human values, brilliance, and virtues, a culture that is a tool in the hands of the lords of power and wealth and the emperors of power. With this culture, they seek to deprive the human race of all human virtues and turn people into corrupt, obedient, and submissive beings, oblivious to the remembrance of God and spirituality. Their interests are only secured through the spread of this culture. This culture is nudity and the unconditional mixing of men and women, which is one of the main pillars of Western culture and was founded from the beginning for the corruption of people and the removal of humanity from the circle of human virtues. Those who have no compassion for humanity.

The largest television and radio stations belong to the owners of the largest factories, mines, resources, and the greatest wealth. Zionist organizations have been planning and spreading corruption and immorality for the corruption of the human race for about one hundred and fifty years. They have removed women from human chastity; even women in Europe and America have not been as afflicted with immorality and corruption and distance from human virtues as they have been in the last fifty years! The women of Islamic countries and other distant countries are in their own place. They have also led men to corruption, comfort-seeking, laziness, pleasure-seeking, and consumerism and forced them to accept an animalistic way of life. To prevent threats and retaliation and awakening from men and women who are under the pressure of tyranny and colonialism of these powers in various countries of the world, they have corrupted minds.

Today, the moral corruption of the people of the colonized countries of the world in Africa and Latin America is at its highest level. They did not become corrupt on their own; rather, colonialism and global arrogance planned for their corruption to prevent their evil, aggression, retaliation, and awakening and to preserve their satanic and demonic empire of colonial and arrogant apparatuses.

They had started this with our nation even before the reign of the hated Pahlavi dynasty; but during the reign of that cursed regime, they intensified this process. Colonialism and global arrogance, during the reign of this mercenary and puppet family, made great efforts to spread Western culture in society and unfortunately succeeded. Today, if you see the tendencies of some Iranian families inside the country to adopt those customs and manners and dress and social interactions, it is the result of the teachings of those vile and treacherous Western teachers who have infiltrated and grown in this country over decades. Even though the revolution came and brought about a great transformation in the culture and mentality of the people, many individuals who still long for the quality of Western life, unfortunately, are unaware of the corrupt and filthy Western lifestyle, in which none of the fundamental human foundations—such as family and the human character of men and women—remain intact.

Today, see that in America and England, homosexuality has become official and legal, and they are not ashamed! They have done something that we are ashamed to mention and narrate. Our people should know, when in a country the marriage of two people of the same sex becomes legal, will the foundation of the family remain in this society?!

Today, the ordinary masses of people in America and Europe—not their powerful and propagandists—suffer from the weakness of the family foundation. Women and men suffer from the disintegration of families and are distressed, and this is intensifying day by day and is, of course, the final blow. The family is the place of comfort for a person. No human being, without having a comfortable, peaceful, and restful family, will taste the flavor of life and the true taste of human life. They are destroying and annihilating this fundamental foundation. This is Western culture. The result of this freedom and lawlessness and the culture of nudity and the mixing of men and women is these issues.

They accuse us of preventing the scientific and cultural growth of women!! They themselves know this accusation is false; but they repeat it. We value the true human worth of women. We do not differentiate between men and women. We believe that both men and women are human and the field of perfection is open to them. The more they strive, the more they work hard, and the more they move towards God, the more they will grow and develop. The path of science and political presence is open to both of them.

We observed in the war and revolution that the role of women, if not more than men, was not less. If women did not sing the epic of war and did not consider war as a value in the homes, men would not have found the will and motivation to go to the battlefield. Dozens of factors come together to send the great multitude of Basijis to the front. One of the most important of these factors is the spirit of mothers and wives and women.

I may be able to claim that in meeting with the esteemed families of martyrs, I have not seen a broken maternal spirit. Although not all are the same, some are stronger and some are weaker, some have not understood the matter with that clarity, and some have grasped it in the utmost clarity of truth, but in most families, I found the spirit of women better than men. This is the state of women in our society; but Westerners not only lead women but both genders to the swamp of corruption.

Our people must open their eyes and ears. Returning to the corrupt and decadent Western culture in our revolutionary and Islamic society is impossible and forbidden. Our nation's revolution and officials will not allow the behavior and life of the people to again move towards what the corrupt Western culture had injected and forcibly imposed on this nation.

Those who have read the history of the introduction of unveiling and nudity of women in our society, which was carried out by the ominous Pahlavi dynasty, or those whose age allows and have seen those days, know how unveiling and lawlessness and the mixing of men and women were introduced into the country and imposed on the nation. Our nation did not easily accept this phenomenon; but unfortunately, due to the passage of two or three generations under the heavy and ominous shadow of the Pahlavi dynasty until the victory of the Islamic Revolution, some were born with this culture and did not understand its ugliness and did not perceive the purity and clarity of the pure Islamic environment. Our propaganda apparatuses also did not have the ability to identify the flaws of Western culture to them.

Here, the duty of the radio and television in explaining the brilliance of Islamic culture in all areas, especially in the field of relations between men and women and the status of women in society, becomes clear. Radio and television have a great responsibility. Radio and television are not entertainment devices; they are educational devices. Today, the world uses radio and television with thought and planning for education—in all its forms. These same Zionists, with huge sums of money and billions of dollars annually, are engaged in teaching corruption through radio and television. Radio and television in dependent countries, where corrupt colonial rulers are at the helm, are teaching negligence, carelessness, debauchery, and drunkenness to the people. If they do not teach these to their people and the people grow with their native, Islamic, and religious culture—any religion—the powers and colonialists and tyrannical rulers cannot easily govern them. If you listen to the program of any of the foreign radios for their native audiences, it is nothing but corruption, negligence, unawareness, and inattention to the affairs of life and society. Of course, alongside it, they sometimes teach two words from a scientific topic; but that is not the main issue.

The duty of a media is to educate, analyze, and direct the heart, mind, spirit, and brain of individuals in the direction that the media managers have in mind. In our country, it is no different. Radio and television in the Islamic Republic should be a means to direct people towards Islamic culture and a tool for the knowledge and familiarity of people with Islamic and human brilliance. It has no other duty, and if there are cases that enter the radio and television contrary to this goal, they should not be broadcast.

Artists, writers, speakers, presenters, directors, actors, and everyone should join hands to create these valuable and brilliant Islamic concepts in the form of artistic programs so that people learn from them. By education in radio and television, we do not mean mere lectures, roundtables, and teaching. Radio and television should use various artistic methods in artistic programs, films, and shows to explain and clarify Islamic concepts and values, and if it is otherwise, the radio and television of the Islamic Republic are not Islamic.

You brothers and sisters who, thanks be to God, are endowed with knowledge and have studied and seen scientific courses and worked and are familiar with books and perhaps with the knowledge of foreigners, have a heavier responsibility.

The Islamic system is a system that intends to implement all Islamic laws and regulations completely. This system is the source of human happiness and the pride of the nation and country and the prosperity of the earth and the country and the region of residence and the joy of the living environment and also the strengthening of the family and the reform of social relations among people and in short, the source of the happiness of material and spiritual life of human beings.

You are obliged to become familiar with these programs and must be effective in implementing these programs as much as possible. Primarily, the responsibility lies with the knowledgeable and aware individuals and religious scholars and then all those who have awareness and knowledge and can enlighten and inform people. Your behavior should advance people on this correct path more than your words, and this is the slogan of the Islamic Republic and the rule of Islam and its implementation, which our great Imam told us in numerous statements from the beginning of the revolution to the last days of his blessed life.

We hope that the Almighty God will grant His success and grace to all of you brothers and sisters and give us all the ability to, God willing, strive for the realization of Islamic laws so that soon our nation and society will witness the complete implementation of Islam in their society.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings