Dear students,
You are quite welcome to this gathering. Meetings of this kind have been held in the holy month of Ramazan over the past years. There are three reasons for holding the meetings. First, it is a symbolic move to honor the university and the student, to indicate their spiritual value and high status. Second, it provides an opportunity for members of student organizations to get together and exchange views. Third, it also provides me with a good opportunity to hear your views. You, members of student organizations and superior students, have some views to express which I would like to hear.
Whenever I have heard something from students, I have written it down. These views, which are somehow related to universities, the science ministry or other government organs, are taken into consideration and followed up as far as possible.
I am happy that this year also the meeting has been held. But, unfortunately, the time of the meeting is limited to only one and a half hours. Now I would like you to begin to speak.
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We had a very good session today. As I said at the beginning of our meeting, I was expected to be the listener, and you were expected to be the speakers. I also pointed out that the aim of the meeting was to honor the university and the student. In fact, honoring the university and the student indicates respect for knowledge and learning. If our country does not invest in the area of science and technology, it would take our country a long time to achieve progress and development.
Indeed, the reason for the backwardness of our country at the time of former tyrants, Pahlavi and Qajar rulers, was that no significance was attached to science and no respect was expressed for knowledge and learning. If in a society knowledge is held in high esteem, ground will be prepared for the flourishing of talented individuals and for the fulfilling of their potential.
More efforts should be made to invest in and internalize science and technology. Otherwise, using the results of the scientific work of other nations would not be conducive to the development of our country.
In the past (under the former tyrannical regimes), there was no scientific progress in this country, for which several factors were responsible. However, the most important factor was the dissemination of the wrong belief in society that Iranians could not make progress, that they did not possess the required talent for scientific and industrial development!
Today, this may sound strange to you, but this wrong idea was propagated in our country for a long time. Efforts were made to insinuate that Iranians only had aptitude for literature. And what was actually meant was that Iranians could only compose lyrics! Those behind this false notion did not even recognize Iranians as eligible for literary research, which they claimed should be done by European orientalists! In short, the wrong belief was spread in society that Iranians were not suitable for serious matters!
This false idea led to our scientific backwardness, which in turn resulted in lack of industrial progress. Consequently, our nation had to spend all its valuable assets such as its oil and natural resources in order to attain a normal living standard. This situation resulted in either importing different goods and commodities or assembling them in this country. Thus, Iranian nation became dependent on others for it basic necessities of life.
Another result of this situation was that many of our national resources remained undiscovered and unutilized due to scientific and technological backwardness. For instance, for years nobody in this country knew anything about oil! Other countries that had made scientific and technological progress were familiar with oil and its uses. Therefore, those countries sent their experts to Iran, and they extracted our oil and utilized it for their own purposes. This was the case in Iran and in most oil-rich countries in the world, and it was due to lack of progress in scientific areas.
When there is no scientific progress, there would be no advance in the field of industry or technology. When there is no industrial or technological progress, many of the natural resources, which are national assets, would not be discovered. A nation that has not made industrial progress has to spend its national funds in obtaining industrial products from other countries. This situation leads to dependency on other countries and submission to their cultural and political influence. All this stems form lack of scientific development.
Therefore, the promotion of science should be given high priority in our country. One of the achievements of our revolution has been taking great strides in this direction. It is worth mentioning that for many years our nation needed the medical services of Thai, Pakistani and Indian doctors, since there were not enough Iranian physicians in this country. But today, one of the major concerns of our government is how to create jobs for a large number of young doctors who have graduated from our universities. Today, we have much more universities and professors than we had in the past.
I would like to emphasize that more significance should be attached to science. My dear students, you should take the issue of science more seriously, since it is the key to progress and development. However, acquiring knowledge and different sciences should be accompanied by piety, sincerity and honesty. A scientist who is not characterized by piety and honesty may prove harmful rather than useful to his nation; he may use his knowledge against the interests of his country. Therefore, self-purification and adherence to cultural, moral and spiritual values are necessary as well. Any move to undermine such values and religious commitment among our students is surely harmful to the interests of our nation.
I pray to Almighty Allah to bestow His blessings on our talented students and help them build the future of this country based on knowledge, virtue and piety.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings