Statements of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution at the Global Conference of Women and Islamic Awakening

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

First of all, I welcome all of you dear sisters, my beloved daughters, and distinguished women from across the Islamic countries; this is your home, it belongs to you, and we hope that the Almighty God blesses this conference and this meeting for the Islamic Ummah.

This gathering of yours is, in my opinion, very significant. The gathering of distinguished women from the East and West of the Islamic world holds more importance than just a conference for Islamic awakening. This significance lies in the opportunity for recognizing one another, for distinguished women of the Islamic world to find each other, which has been provided in this conference. And this is very important. For a hundred years, Western culture, backed by money, power, weapons, and diplomacy, has been trying to impose Western culture and lifestyle on Islamic societies among women. For a hundred years, efforts have been made to alienate the Muslim woman from her identity. All influential and powerful factors have been employed: money, propaganda, weapons, various material temptations, and the exploitation of human sexual instincts; all of these have been utilized to distance the Muslim woman from her Islamic identity. Today, if you, as a distinguished Islamic woman, strive to restore this identity to the Muslim woman, you will have rendered the greatest service to the Islamic Ummah, to Islamic awakening, and to the dignity and honor of Islam. This gathering can be a significant and effective step in this direction. Do not limit yourselves to sitting around each other and discussing for a few days; make this meeting the beginning of a great and lasting movement that will impact the Islamic world and can indeed have an impact. The awakening of women, the sense of identity and character among women, awareness and insight within the female community, has a compounded effect on Islamic awakening and Islamic dignity. This is the first point.

Some of the sisters, in their useful, mature, and measured speeches, have proposed suggestions. We agree with pursuing these suggestions.

A fundamental issue is the Islamic perspective on women. This perspective is precisely the opposite of the view that Western culture has towards women. The Western view of women is derogatory. They call it freedom, but in reality, it is not freedom. For the past two or three centuries, the West has adorned all its crimes with beautiful names. If they have committed murder, if they have plundered, if they have enslaved, if they have confiscated the wealth of nations, if they have instigated wars among nations, and other crimes they have committed, they have labeled all of these with attractive and deceptive names; names like freedom-seeking, human rights, democracy, and the like. The name freedom, as it pertains to the Western orientation towards women, is a false name; this is not freedom. The essence of Western culture is to present women as commodities, as tools for men's enjoyment in society. The encouragement and incitement towards nudity is for this reason. In the West, the incidence of violence against women has increased over the past hundred and two hundred years, not decreased. Sexual freedom and promiscuity in the West have not caused the boiling point of human lust, which is instinctual and natural, to subside. Previously, they advertised this way, saying let men and women have free relations in society so that sexual lust would diminish; it has become evident that the opposite is true. The more freedom in relations between men and women in society increases, given the situation they have created, the more human lust intensifies. Today, the Westerners are unashamed and present homosexuality as a value. A dignified human being would feel shame on his forehead, yet they are unashamed. The Western view of women is a degraded, incomplete, misleading, and erroneous view. The Islamic view of women is one that honors, dignifies, fosters growth, and grants independence to the identity and character of women; this is our claim. We can prove this claim with the strongest evidence.

Women in an Islamic environment achieve scientific growth, personal growth, moral growth, political growth, and they stand at the forefront of the most fundamental social issues, while remaining women. Being a woman is a point of distinction for women, a point of pride. It is not a disgrace for a woman to be distanced from the feminine environment, from feminine characteristics, from feminine ethics. We should not consider homemaking, child-rearing, and being a wife as a disgrace. The Western culture has shattered the family. Today, one of the major problems of the Western world is the disintegration of families, the increase of identity-less children. These issues will grip the West. Social events will gradually unfold. The West will suffer the hardest blows from this point, and this glittering material civilization will collapse from this very point.

Islam views women with a perspective of dignity. All human characteristics are shared between men and women. A human being, before being defined as a woman or a man, is defined as a human being. In humanity, there is no distinction between men and women; all are equal. This is the Islamic perspective. The physical characteristics that the Almighty God has placed in both genders assign each a role in the continuation of creation, in the growth and elevation of humanity, in the movement of history; and the role of women is more significant. The most important task of humanity is to ensure the continuity of the human race; that is, reproduction; the role of women in this task is incomparable to that of men. The home is important for this reason, the family is important for this reason, and the limitations on the exercise of sexual instincts are important for this reason; this perspective must be applied to Islamic issues and the laws of Islamic Sharia. The misguided West labels these as limitations. They call that misleading bondage freedom! This is part of the deceptions of the West. This is one point regarding the issue of women.

You distinguished women, distinguished daughters, distinguished youth, one of your most important responsibilities today is to depict the role of women from the Islamic viewpoint, to highlight it, to clarify it; the human education of women is the greatest service to human and Islamic societies; this movement must be initiated. Of course, it has already begun, it must be intensified, it must become widespread, it must progress, and you will undoubtedly succeed in this movement. This is a fundamental task. This is one point.

Another point concerns the role of women in social transformations; in revolutions, in this great movement of Islamic awakening. Let me tell you, if women do not participate in the social movement of a nation, that movement will not reach anywhere, it will not succeed. If women participate in a movement, with serious, conscious, and insightful presence, that movement will progress exponentially. In this great movement of Islamic awakening, the role of women is irreplaceable and must continue. Women are the ones who prepare and encourage their husbands and children to participate in the most dangerous fields and fronts. We have clearly and tangibly observed the prominent role of women during the struggle against the tyrants in Iran and also after the victory of the revolution until today. If in the war that was imposed on us for eight years, our women, the women of our country, had not been present in the battlefield, in the vast national arena, we would not have triumphed in this difficult and arduous test. Women made us victorious; the mothers of martyrs, the wives of martyrs, the wives of the disabled, the wives of our prisoners and freed captives; the mothers of these individuals created an atmosphere in a limited area that encouraged the youth, the men, to participate resolutely; and this spread throughout the country. The result was that the atmosphere of our country became entirely one of struggle, of sacrifice and selflessness; selflessness from life. And we succeeded. Today, it is the same in the Islamic world; in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Libya, in Bahrain, in Yemen, in every other point. If women strengthen and continue their presence at the forefront, victories will come one after another. There is no doubt about this.

Another point, another word, regarding the essence of the issue of Islamic awakening. This great event that has occurred in the Islamic world, which began in Tunisia, gained significance in Egypt, and then spread to other countries, is an extraordinary event, unprecedented; in our history, whenever one looks, this event is a tremendous one, it is not an ordinary event. This event can change the course of the world, it can cut off the oppressive dominance of global arrogance and Zionism over the Islamic world, which has persisted for many years, it can unite the Islamic Ummah; provided that it continues. Islamic movements have successes and are at risk of setbacks; they face certain harms, these harms must be recognized and prevented. Today, fortunately, the Muslim nations in North Africa have shone brightly, they have moved well. The movement is a great one, and thanks be to God, it has been successful so far; but be aware that the West, led by America and Zionism, has come into the field with all its might and will come even more to try to control this movement and ride these waves; nations must be vigilant. They were caught off guard, they could not and did not foresee it. This surprise is the divine plan; "And they plotted, and Allah plotted, and Allah is the best of plotters."

In the case of Lebanon, they were caught off guard by the victory of the resilient Lebanese youth over the armed Zionist army. They were also caught off guard in the Islamic Revolution of Iran thirty-three years ago. These surprises have continued. In these events, they were caught off guard and could not foresee or prevent it, but they are preparing. One of their strategies is to diminish the motivations of the people. The youth of the Islamic world - both women and men, and the elites of the Islamic world, especially in the countries that have revolted - must know that if they stand firm and resist, their victory over all the instruments of global arrogance is certain. All the tools of power of the arrogant powers are ineffective against the presence of the people, against the faith of the nations. They have money, they have weapons, they have nuclear bombs, they have equipped armies, they have diplomatic tools, but all of these are ineffective against the faith of the nations. Be careful that this faith is not lost; through creating divisions, through distracting and preoccupying, they try to separate the youth in one way, the elderly in another, the religious in one way, the non-religious in another. The unity of the people based on religious and Islamic slogans is the only thing that can advance these nations. And we have a long and extensive experience in this regard.

My dear sisters! My dear children! For thirty-three years, we have faced the enmities of global arrogance. Today, the global uproar and the noise of global propaganda have turned towards the fact that we have sanctioned Iran. They do not understand and cannot comprehend that for thirty years we have been vaccinated against sanctions. We have been under sanctions for thirty years. We have been vaccinated against sanctions. Sanctions do not harm us. The Iranian nation stood firm. The Iranian nation, with its life, with its wealth, with its dearest loved ones, stood against the plots of the enemy. Today, we are a hundred times stronger and ahead of where we were thirty years ago. Today, we are ahead in the fields of science, politics, economics, and in the management of the country, in the deep insight of the people, far beyond the early days of the revolution, and this has been achieved in the face of the enmity of the enemies against the Iranian nation.

Today, the Muslim woman in Iran is a proud and dignified being. Thousands of propaganda tools bombard the news to distort this reality; but the truth is this. Today, our most faithful and revolutionary women are our educated women. Today, our women, our educated women, our young women are present and active in the most complex experimental and human scientific laboratories and centers. Our most active women in political, scientific, and social management are our faithful and revolutionary women; they possess good education and deep thought.

The progress of the Iranian nation is due to its steadfastness. If a nation stands firm for God and in the way of God, God will help it; this is the divine promise, and the divine promise is unbreakable.

The apparatus of global arrogance and its policies have made every effort to dissuade the Islamic Republic from supporting Palestine. We stood firm on the issue of Palestine. They tried to magnify sectarian and religious issues; the Islamic Republic stood alongside its Muslim brothers from every sect, from Shia and Sunni and various Islamic groups. Wherever there is an Islamic movement, wherever there is a defense of Islamic identity, wherever there is a defense of the oppressed, the Islamic Republic is present and will be present, and America and Zionism and the corrupt political network of the arrogant powers could not overcome the Islamic Republic and will not be able to.

By God's grace, we stood alongside the Palestinian nation, alongside the revolutionary Muslim nations, alongside the oppressed people of Bahrain, alongside all those who confront America and Zionism, we stood firm and defend them, and in this regard, we do not heed anyone or any power.

What the Almighty God has granted us and the Muslim nations is divine grace, divine mercy, and we must do what is worthy of divine mercy and ask the Almighty God to grant us the means of His mercy and favors, and God willing, it will be so.

Cherish this movement of Muslim women, this acquaintance with one another from all over the Islamic world, and establish it as a foundation for a great movement among the Islamic Ummah that, God willing, will lead to greater victories.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.