In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master and Prophet, Ab-al-Qassem Al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure, immaculate and chosen household, especially the one remaining with Allah on earth
You are very welcome dear brothers, dear sisters, the very valuable society of nurses. I congratulate you on Nurses’ Day and on the coincidence of this day with the birthday anniversary of Hazrat Zaynab. This is a very important phenomenon. Those who intelligently chose this day and this title for Nurses’ Day took a blessed action. It really fits.
Hazrat Zaynab (God’s greetings be upon her) is an outstanding lady in the history of humanity, not only in the history of Islam. This is really the case. She was a strong and powerful personality and a great individual. As the poet says, “She was not merely a woman, rather she had God’s hand in her sleeve.” [from a poem by Oman Samani] Few people – whether men or women - can enter difficult arenas in the same solid and powerful way that she did. That great lady is a well-known role model for nurses. Thanks to this naming, a special relationship has been fostered between you nurses and that magnificent lady. I congratulate you on this.
I wish to raise two, three points: one is about matters related to nurses, another is about matters related to the 9th of Dey event – that took place the day before yesterday: the 9th of Dey – and the last one is about the current affairs of the country.
As for matters related to nursing, what I believe is that nursing is a combination of moral qualities and human virtues. These values range from having a sense of responsibility and showing sympathy to showing patience and endurance in the face of impatience and restlessness [on the part of patients]. All of these qualities are great human virtues. The problems that human societies have are because of lack of these values. Nursing is a collection of these values, which range from attentiveness, care and consideration for those who are looked after by them – they look after patients in a careful, considerate and diligent manner – to patience, steadfastness and refusal to be discouraged in the face of difficulty.
There are certain occupations who deal with beautiful sceneries and the good aspects of life. However, in your occupation, you constantly deal with disease, with patients, with pain and with difficulty. You show tolerance in the face of these problems, you do not become discouraged and you do your job. These are moral virtues. So, when I say that respecting nurses means respecting human virtues, this is out of complete faith. If we highlight the character and personality of nurses and if we hold them in high regard – I have mentioned this many times – this is in fact attaching value to rare moral and human virtues. These are moral virtues.
I mentioned that these qualities are rare in society. I would like to add something in parenthesis about this matter: although we should respect nurses and hold them in high regard, we should expand these virtues and qualities whose combination can be seen in nurses. We need to do so. Our society needs to do so. Today, our society needs compassion among individuals. Today, our society needs unity, a sense of responsibility, patience and endurance. Today, we are moving forward on a very important, glorious and vital path. We Iranian society are moving towards a mountain summit and moving towards a summit requires care and certain conditions. Such conditions are not necessary on a smoothly paved road, but when you move towards a mountain summit, you need to do certain things.
Today, our society, our country and our people need these qualities: we should show patience and endurance together, we should be kind and compassionate to one another and we should help each other. Of course, these run in the nature of Iranians and they are the moral roots of Muslim Iranians. Well, you witnessed that the people help others with their heart and soul when a natural calamity occurs. These things already exist, but they should be promoted and expanded.
All those who can play a part in this regard – including managerial organizations, promotional foundations, the media, the teachers of religion and even political activists – should encourage these virtues and the holders of these virtues so that they will be promoted in our society. A few nights ago, television showed a man who was neither a millionaire nor the manager of an association. He did not have suspicious sources of income either. However, he managed to give dowry to hundreds of couples with diligence and by collecting donations. They showed his warehouse and I saw this on television. So, these qualities and these individuals should be promoted and highlighted. Such courses of action should be promoted. Promoting virtues is the responsibility of everyone in society and those who are capable of doing so.
Fortunately, Mr. Minister raised certain points, which were very good, regarding nurses. They have carried out a number of tasks and they decide to do certain other tasks, which should definitely be carried out with due speed and due acumen. An important point about nurses is that because we entrust patients to nurses, we should look after nurses as well, in terms of psychological and physical care. Nurses themselves – who are entrusted with the task of looking after patients and people who need treatment – need to be looked after. They should not become tired and impatient. In other words, we should not do something to make them tired, impatient, exhausted and the like.
A nurse who has to work two shifts cannot remain energetic and patient and he or she is not to blame because they simply cannot. In particular, woman nurses have to deal with their own families, their children, their spouse and their familial environment. All these matters should be observed. Before coming to this meeting, I was speaking to Mr. Minister, telling him that we should do something to help nurses feel at ease and work with peace of mind. Nurses’ enthusiasm, patience, on-time presence and answering their familial needs are matters that should receive attention by managers, God willing. Of course, these tasks are difficult and they are time-consuming, but they should show determination by Allah’s favor. This is because the society of nurses is a dear and important society. They should seriously attend to the problems that nurses have. They should recognize their rights and they should completely assert them.
One of the gentlemen in the meeting said that we should consider an independent identity for nurses: such an identity that is not dependent on matters related to physicians. This is important. Such actions should be taken. In the present time, we fortunately have tens of thousands of students studying nursing and they will become nurses later on. With good management and good planning, we can pay attention to nursing matters in the area of education, fair distribution of nurses throughout the country, nurses’ income and monetary matters. These are among the priorities of the health system. Of course, nurses and physicians complement each other. They are not each other’s rivals, rather, they are each other’s complements. Physicians complement nurses and the other way around. Each play their part in their specific areas.
Another matter is related to observing the principles of sharia in hospitals. I strongly request that the honorable officials pay attention to this issue. Sometimes, female patients ask for female nurses, but they do not grant their wish. We should seriously observe these issues.
Well, these points were related to nursing. These were issues that I deemed necessary to discuss. I wish, insist and pray that the society of nurses should and will be able to carry out their duties with more enthusiasm, motivation and sense of responsibility – of course, this already exists in them, thank God.
As for the 9th of Dey event – that took place two days ago – commemorating a nation’s important tests is a fundamental matter. Countries and nations face certain tests and they sometimes show a brilliant performance in them. This is not particular to our nation, but after the victory of the Revolution until today, our nation has passed through many of such tests with flying colors. Our nation has shown a brilliant performance in these tests, one of which is the 9th of Dey of 1388. The presence of the people in the arena of public participation and in the heart of streets helped foil a deep-rooted and important plot. The day before yesterday, the people throughout the country commemorated that day, that movement and that uprising. Their action means commemorating that great movement and great test, which is an absolute necessity.
There is a very important point here which the Iranian nation is completely aware of thanks to its insight. Well, the people have certain demands and in most cases, they are right. They have certain demands and expectations and if they are not met, they complain. However, it is one issue to have demands, but it is quite another to create fitnas because of those demands. The latter is the enemy’s doing, not of friends. When you cannot drive properly on a slope and you slow down, your friend helps by pushing the car so that the car can move. If you cannot start, he helps start the car. Friends enter the scene like this and they make such moves. What does the enemy do in such circumstances? When he sees that the car does not move, he does something to blow out the tires or he tampers with such and such a component of the car. This is what the enemy does. Since the beginning of the Revolution, the enemy has been busy taking such actions.
This year too, as you witnessed, the people had certain demands in Aban – later on, I will say an interesting thing in this regard. The enemy, who had employed some agents, took advantage of these demands. He immediately entered the arena and did sabotage work. However, the people showed insight by stepping aside when they realized that it was all about vandalism, starting fires, destroying and annihilating infrastructures. The people had and continue to have demands, but they were not willing to cooperate with seditionists. Therefore, they pulled out, leaving seditionists isolated. This is important.
Seditionists usually to try to hide themselves in the middle of the crowed, but the people’s insight and intelligence put an end to the matter once and for all. This happened both in this year’s Aban, in the year 1388 and in different years since the beginning of the Revolution until today. This is because of the people’s insight. In the past month or so, the people separated themselves from those incidents and from the seditionists. And after two, three days, they poured to the streets forming a chain of great rallies in different cities. These issues result from the people’s insight and vigilance.
In my opinion and the feeling that I have is that those who take advantage of the people’s demands are mostly individuals who are involved with the enemies’ intelligence services. In most cases, this is true. Of course, some individuals might enter the arena because they get carried away, but among those who cover their faces with masks, who attack gasoline stations and wheat warehouses of the country in order to set them on fire and who destroy the infrastructures in cities – whether those belonging to the government or the people themselves – rarely can we find individuals who get carried away. I believe that their masterminds and their leaders are in contact with foreign intelligence services. They know who they are and they keep them prepared to throw them in the middle of the arena once an opportunity arises.
Now, I want to speak about that interesting point: one of the high-ranking officials of the country said to me recently that he had a meeting with a foreign politician. That politician said to our official that he was in Washington D.C. on the first day of the incidents in the month of Aban. He said that the Americans – the really despicable heads of the US – were rubbing their hands with glee as they received news from Iran. So, they were enormously rejoicing at such news. The politician quotes the Americans as saying, “Iran will be done with” [Audience chant, “Death to the US”]. The politician responded by saying that, that will not be the case because Iran is strong and nothing will happen to it in the face of such incidents. However, they retorted that this incident is different from the others. This is a completely different matter and Iran will be finished.
However, two days after that, the issue was settled. The politician was still there. He narrates that, they were really unhappy. They were really feeling down as the plot had not worked and it had fallen short. The Americans are like this.
Notice what they are doing now in Iraq and in Syria. They are taking revenge on Hashd al-Sh’abi in response to the eradication of DAESH. Because Hash al-Sh’abi entered the arena and annihilated DAESH, which was manufactured by the Americans, they are taking revenge on it. They fabricate an excuse and launch an attack on Iraqi soil and they martyr some people. Not only I but also the government and people of Iran seriously condemn these American crimes.
The noteworthy point is that when such incidents occur to the Americans – notice how powerful anti-American sentiments are in Baghdad and throughout Iraq – that guy sends another tweet – he either delivers a speech, writes a tweet or publishes an article – saying that they pin the blame on Iran, that Iran is involved in such matters and that they will duly respond. First of all, the hell you will. Secondly, try to be reasonable - which you are not. The Americans should be reasonable – of course, they are not – and understand that people in the region hate the US. Why do the Americans not understand this?
You Americans committed crimes and massacred the people in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Right after the destruction of Saddam, the Americans killed and assassinated perhaps more than a thousand Iraqi scientists with the help of malicious organizations such as Blackwater and the like. They attacked people’s houses. They shove the man of the house on the ground, in the presence of his wife and his children, and trampled on his faces with heavy boots. You have done such things.
You Americans bombarded happy wedding caravans in Afghanistan and you did so not just once, twice but tens of times. You bombarded mourning ceremonies as well. You have committed crimes and people hate you! The people of Afghanistan, of Iraq, of Syria and of other parts of the world hate you. I do not want to mention names, but there are some countries whose governments show certain considerations. Otherwise, their people, we are sure and we are aware, hate the Americans in the extreme. Well, they hate them and such hatred is vented one way or another, but what does it have to do with Iran? They are not reasonable and they do not understand it. The requirement for political and security moves – the kind of moves made by the Americans – in the region is hatred. They oppress them, loot their resources and behave in an arrogant manner towards them.
American officials enter such and such a country and go to bases where their own military are present and they probably enter without any permission. After that, they invite the president of that country to that base. Well, little men, you should know that it is another man’s house. With whose permission and blessing and with which political manners do you expect to go to your bases in that country, summoning the president of that country and expressing your anger should he not show up? They are like this. They behave like this. Well, when they behave like this, it is evident that this will provoke people’s hatred and anger and this shows itself somehow. This anger is vented in certain places. Now, it is showing itself as well.
If the Islamic Republic decides to confront and fight against a country, it will do so in an explicit manner. We are completely committed to the interests of our country and our nation. We are completely committed to the dignity of our nation. We are totally committed to the progress and greatness of the Iranian nation. We will confront, without any consideration, everyone who threatens these things and we will deliver our blow. We thank God that our dear people, the Iranian nation - are a brave, insightful and prepared nation. Their men, their women, their youth and their elderly are ready and they are present in the arena.
Some people say that there will be a war and a confrontation, but this will not be the case because we will never drag the country into a war. Nonetheless, if others want to impose it on our country, we will stand up to them with complete power.
And we believe that God is with us. We believe that victory belongs to us. We believe that the future of this country will be much better than its present-day as its present is much better than the past.
God’s mercy be upon our dear martyrs and on our magnanimous Imam who opened this path to us and may God bestow His blessings on all you dear ones
Greetings be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings
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