I would like to stress that you should focus on the issue of family at this point in time. The enemy – not the enemy of Iran and the Revolution, rather the enemy of humanity – has decided to destroy the foundation of family among human beings. This is divine tradition. Family is a divine tradition. The enemy of humanity – in other words, international capitalism and Zionism – has decided to destroy family since approximately a hundred years ago. And they succeeded in certain places. They managed to do so in those places where the people had drifted away from God. And they failed to do so in certain countries including our Islamic Iran, but they are doing their best.
These hard and late marriages, characterized with the small number of births, and what is referred to as “white marriages” – this ugly term which represents the darkest kinds of marriages – are all promoted in order to destroy family. The propagation of lustfulness and the destruction of modesty and sexual reserve are some of the enemy’s plans in the present time. You should include the fight against these phenomena in your plans. You should work on the purity and piety of this country’s youth and you should strive towards it. This is one of the best tasks. It is one of the most efficient methods for preserving and developing the Revolution and for protecting the Islamic government.
Promoting homosexuality has targeted family foundation in West
One of the factors which has undermined the western ideological system and its spiritual domination is the increasing moral and spiritual crisis in the west. A clear sign of this crisis is that a feeling of absurdity, nothingness, desperation and psychological insecurity has been engendered in all western people particularly in youth. The foundation of the family has shaken in the west. And these are the consequences.
Western orientation towards the issue of women has caused intellectuals, thinkers and broadminded personalities to seriously question feminism which was formed tens of years ago. These intellectuals and thinkers believe that feminism was a trap for women and that it created many obstacles for them. This is a long story.
Another issue is the issue of giving value to decadent practices. For example, homosexuality becomes a value in the west and opposition to homosexuality becomes an anti-value. If a person, a government official, a president, and an outstanding personality is interviewed and if he says that he is opposed to homosexuality, this will be recorded as a negative point in his performance sheet. The moral environment has taken this direction in the west. Today, the situation is like this in the western world.
Of course, it will not stop at this point and it will be much worse and much more inappropriate than what it is now. Of course, some western thinkers and well-intentioned personalities have understood this and they constantly issue warnings, but it is of no use. When a system falls into this abyss, there is no way out and its fate will be nothing but destruction. This is one factor why western values have been challenged.
Western women’s plummeting into the quagmire of corruption led to destruction of family
What the Western women achieved by plummeting into the quagmire of corruption and perversion was the destruction of the family. Those women could only advance in science and politics or in social activities by merely removing hijab was an absolute falsity. Women could do so by holding onto their hijab and decency and we have experienced the fact in our Islamic country. Banning hijab was a prelude to stripping women of their dignity and decency. It was meant to keep people busy with powerful sexual desires. They wanted to prevent people from doing other things and they were successful for some time.
But the strong faith of the Iranian nation did not let this happen. In spite of all the strictures on hijab in the past, our Muslim women resisted suppression in various ways during and after Reza Khan's reign, and during the rest of the rule of the evil Pahlavi regime. Consequently, on January 7, 1978, in Mashhad, a great procession of Muslim women sparked off a demonstration calling for "keeping hijab". I was in exile when we heard the news of the brave faithful Muslim women who had provoked the demonstration.
What I said was only a tiny fraction of all the disasters that the Pahlavi regime had caused. They destroyed religious ideals, moral values, economic growth, our international honor, and in short, all the assets of a nation were among the acts that the dictatorial and tyrannical regime committed.
Jan 9, 2008
Love of family and kindness towards Muslim brethren strongly recommended by Islam
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) established a system with a number of main lines. Among those, I found four major principles: ...Fourth, ever increasing love and compassion. This is also a main characteristic of the Islamic society. Love of God, and God’s love for the people: "God loves them and they love Him; Quran [5:54]." "Allah loves those who turn to Him in repentance and He loves those who cleanse themselves; Quran [2:222]." "Say: 'If you love Allah, follow me and Allah will love you; Quran [3:31]." Kindness, love, affection for the spouse and the children is advised. We are advised to kiss our children and to be kind to them. It is advised to love your spouse and be kind to him/her. It is advised to be kind to Muslim brothers and sisters. Love of the prophet, love of Ahlulbayt. "Say: 'For this, I ask of you no wage except the love of the (Prophet's) relatives; Quran [42:23]."
May 8, 1998
The functional family is a chief pillar of society
Family matters are extremely important. The functional family is a chief pillar of society, functioning as major cells that make up a society. This notion does not mean that if a cell [family] is healthy other parts of society will also become healthy, or if it is unhealthy other parts of society will become unhealthy. Rather, healthy cells mean a healthy body. Our body is nothing but a collection of small cells. Any functioning organ is made up of a collection of cells. If we manage to keep healthy the cells that make up an organ, we will ensure the vitality of that organ: this metaphor reveals how important the family is.
It is impossible for an Islamic society to progress in the absence of healthy, lively and dynamic families. In particular, it is impossible to make progress in the absence of ideal families when it comes to cultural matters, and certain other matters, that are not cultural in nature. Therefore, the family is an essential building block in any society. It may be argued that there is progress in the West in spite of the breaking up of families. The breakup of family units in the West, whose manifestations increase on a daily basis, will take its toll on Western societies. We must not expect to see the consequences too soon. The effects of global and historical events do not reveal themselves instantly: they appear gradually; already some of their effects have been revealed.
At a time when the West achieved several advancements, the family unit was intact. Moral principles were once observed in men-women relationships: of course, not Islamic like. Someone who is more familiar with the West can confirm this account both about Europe and America. Observing moral principles within man-woman relationships, modesty, and avoiding slander: these principles used to be observed once in the West. Immoral actions appeared gradually in the West. The ground was prepared, and things began to deteriorate arriving at the present day situation. The current situation in the West will bring about a very bitter and hard future for Westerners.
Women are the center of the family
Those who humiliate the foundation of family are betraying both the nation and women—the society of women. Those who pretend that 'gender justice' means the participation of women in the all areas that men participate in, are betraying women's trust, respectability, and identity. Women are highly respectable; no one has implied that women should not participate in various social arenas, or that they should not undertake responsibilities, or that they should not become scientists: no one is against this. Today, there are countless women, within our society, who are among the best scientists, the best writers, and the best cultural personalities.
And you should know that this is a Revolutionary feat: such rights for women did not exist before the Revolution. There were very few women who had managed to achieve great scientific, cultural, belletristic, and other such accomplishments. Today, such women are abundant [in numbers]: this was the Revolution's masterpiece. This is because the paradigm for Muslim women upholds such features. At the same time, women are the heads of their household: they are the center of the family. The most important job that a woman can have is motherhood, wifehood, and the being at the center of tranquility and calm in the family: "And made his mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her in love" [The Holy Quran, 7: 189]. Thus, women are a great source of tranquility and calm: this is the greatest characteristic of women in Islam, and one should pay attention to these points on Women's Day.
With certainty, we advise the honorable Iranian, Muslim, and pious women to preserve these Islamic and Quranic concepts and to strengthen them on a daily basis. They should avoid maladies, like the extravagant, negative comparisons with others—for example, negative competitiveness and imitation of deviant western role-models. They should take great care of themselves. Today, Muslim women are dignified in our country. Iranian women have the privilege of having an independent cultural identity, so much so that they are not influenced by others: you [the women] should preserve these qualities for yourselves.
The topic of gender justice and other such topics have been raised pretentiously by westerners. Some people are merely mimicking them: they have turned these ideas up on their megaphones. Where is the justice? In the present time, the greatest numbers of violent rapes are being committed throughout the Western World-–in the US and in Europe. Is this justice? Their statistical calculations [for violent sex crimes] are much larger than in other countries. That is the while, some women, apparently—according to their own statements—enjoy freedom there [in the West]! According to statistics, most instances of domestic violence—violence at home—by men against women are committed in Western countries.
Moreover, these statistics reveal that many women will not dare file a complaint against their abuser. These statistics are related to only those who file a complaint; so, these statistics do not represent all victims. It is those countries [Western countries] which have problems—problems related to life, to culture, and to the management of that society. So, where is the justice? There is no justice! They speak about gender justice simply to pursue their own goals [elsewhere]. Within Islam, gender justice means that women must be respected, they must be shielded from harassment, that men are not entitled to bully or use violence against women just because of their physical strength or because of having a larger body than women.—Justice represents this.
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