I advise families to let their daughters study. May God forbid that parents, on the pretext of religious observances, think they should stop their daughters from continuing their higher education. No, religion has not said so. Religion does not make any difference between girls and boys when it comes to receiving an education. If your son is following his higher education, let your daughter pursue the same. Let our young girls study, learn, get educated, find their status, and value it; to understand how baseless, and untrue the global imperialism propaganda about women is. It is by acquiring knowledge that this fact can be understood.
September 18th, 1996
Try as hard as you can to particularly encourage and educate female students and make them progress in science. This would get the revolution and the country closer to its targets. The people need your services, as they need your speciality, behavior, integrity and allegiance to religion.
I hope by His Will, God helps you to follow Fatima Zahra (a.s.) as your role model, and hopefully, the difficulties Muslim women face in the way of studying will be removed. There are still serious obstacles in some education centers. I hope for these to be removed, God willing, and our Muslim girls and women can follow the path of seeking knowledge, stronger and steadier than before, and we will be proud of women who, preserving Islamic values, reach the highest peaks of human talent, be it scientific, ethical, political, or social.
January 16, 1990
Where does this attention given to the female, and attention the highest and lowest status women can achieve come from? It is probably because the Qur'an wants to underscore the erroneous viewpoint held by the people of the world on those days—a viewpoint that sadly continues to exist till this day: that is, the Quran seeks to draw attention to the outlook held by the people of Arabia—who buried their daughters alive—but also by the people of the great empires of that day such as the Roman Empire and the ancient empires in Iran.
Today's European civilization is based on the Byzantine culture. That is, today, what rules the European and Western culture, and as a result, the American culture and other Western subcultures, are the same foundations, and lines that existed in the Roman Empire. The same [concepts] are still relied upon. In those days too, women were put in high places, respected, and endowed with every decoration. But for what purpose? To satisfy one of the most materialistic and earthly characteristics in men. This is such an insult and abasement to humans, and to women in particular.
It was the same in Iran. You have heard of the ‘Harem-Sara’ [a part of a palace where the many women of the kings lived] of Sassanid kings. What does keeping a harem mean? It means insulting the women. A powerful man gives himself the right to keep a thousand women in his harem. If any of the subordinates of that king had the power, they would have kept a harem of their own. What kind of view towards women results in this?
Now, in such a world, Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) raised such a daughter who, the prophet himself kissed her hands. Prophet Muhammad’s kissing the hands of Fatima Zahra (AS) should never be counted as simply a show of affection. It is so wrong if we think that he kissed her hand because he simply liked her daughter. Does such a high figure, with all the justice and wisdom that the Prophet had, and his leaning on divine revelation, bend to kiss his daughter's hand [only to show affection]? No, this is something else and has another meaning. It means that this young girl—aged between 18 and 25 when she passed away [her age at the time of death is said to be between 18 and 25]—was at the highest summit of human nobleness, and was an extraordinary personality. This is Islam's view towards women. Go after this outlook. Go after this in both cultural and social studies, to apply it—[ I am saying this mainly to] both these ladies from the Cultural and Social Council of Women, and in scientific education, which you knowledgeable ladies pursue.
December 25, 1991
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