Many of the statements that you gentlemen made are statements that I myself wanted to discuss. You addressed me and said that such and such programs should be produced and such and such tasks should be carried out. In fact, these are the statements that I myself wished to discuss with the IRIB staff.
In confirmation of what you gentlemen said, I only want to add that we are engaged in a cultural battle and a soft war. In other words, we have been attacked – a soft attack – and they have done so with very advanced, modern and efficient instruments. We have been attacked. First of all, we should acknowledge this. First, we should accept that we are at war and that we have been attacked. When we accept this, we should focus all our forces on striking the aggressor and on preventing his attack. What is the target of the aggressor’s attack? His target is our culture, our ethics, our families, our identity and our history.
In order to confront the enemy, we should create a strong front which can respond. What is this front comprised of? It is comprised of artists and cultural personalities – you gentlemen, people like you and the friends who are busy working in the area of culture and art. These tasks should really be carried out with firm determination. You should create and be innovative.
Well, there is no doubt that in order for you to be innovative and to create new and outstanding works, there is a need for managerial support. I have no doubt about this and I acknowledge this. Managers should truly support you. They should offer both spiritual support – in other words, they should show that they believe in what you do, and that they appreciate your work – and they should offer financial support.
Of course, you should work a great deal on the issue of quality. Sometimes, I take a look at some series and I see that they portray a bitter environment.
It is very important for us to portray this bitterness in a way that the audience will not just shed tears and feel melancholy. This is important and it should be observed.
You should follow national and public issues more. We have many more ideas to present on the issue of the Sacred Defense. The same is true of the issue of the Revolution.
We should present a correct image of the taghuti regime – the former regime – to today’s youth. This has not been done in a satisfactory way. We should speak about the Revolution and we should work on the Sacred Defense and the issue of families. The Iranian family, identity, culture, past and history are all valuable issues. We can work on all these areas. The gentlemen in the meeting mentioned that there are some restrictions on subject matters. I do not correctly understand what restrictions exist on subject matters. There are so many subject matters which can be used, but limits and boundaries should be observed. This should be done in a way that no word against the general orientation of the Revolution and the people is uttered and no measure in this direction is adopted.
In any case, we are really grateful to you for your efforts. I thank the friends for the tasks that they have carried out and are carrying out. Your works are really influential. In the conversations that exist in a movie and dramatic work – series and the like - sometimes, one single work exerts great influence. Sometimes, one word does so. One sentence might make a great number of youth perform daily prayers. There might not be a need for us to portray someone who is performing wuzu [ritual ablution before saying daily prayers] or saying daily prayers in order to encourage youth to say daily prayers. Sometimes, if you can use a particular sentence in conversations – as you say, in dialogues – in an artistic way, it might encourage many individuals to perform daily prayers, to engage in jihad and to behave in a pure and sincere manner. These points are very important.
