Need to Consider Enlisting Women for Decision-Making Positions

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei stressed the need for finding ways to use knowledgeable and experienced women in various levels of decision-making in the country. 
“This is an important issue for which we will hopefully find a solution,” he said in a meeting with a group of elect women on Wednesday, Leader.ir reported. 
He highlighted the role of women at home as a wife and mother, but noted that housewifery does not mean being bound to the house and avoiding social and political activities. 
“This means a woman should be able to do any other work that she is interested in and has a chance to do alongside housewifery,” he said. 
However, if a woman has to choose between the two, the family is more important, according to the Leader. 
He also said a woman can do the housework if she is voluntarily interested, but according to religious teachings, a woman is not like a worker at home so that others can force her to work. 
Ayatollah Khamenei later pointed to the services of the Islamic Republic to women as “important and unforgettable”. 
The Islamic Revolution [1979] stimulated the growth of a huge number of educated women, in a way that the number of girl students at universities exceeded that of boys, he said. 
“A great number of women are also working in various fields of science and technology.” 
Iranian girls’ victory in different global athletic fields is also an important example of women’s progress after the revolution, he added. 
Ayatollah Khamenei also emphasized the need for appropriate laws for the protection of women against cruel husbands. 
“Sometimes men, relying on their physical capability, oppress women, and in these cases, to safeguard the family, laws related to family must be so strong and in support of the oppressed that men would not be able to oppress women,” he said.  

Islamic View

The Leader later underlined equality between men and women in the view of Islam, saying in Islamic and human rating, there is no difference between the two genders. 
He noted, however, the rights and responsibilities of the two are different while being “balanced” in Islam. 
“There are differences in the nature of men and women … and neither should act against this nature,” he said. 
The duties of men and women in the society are “the same but in different forms,” according to Ayatollah Khamenei, as in the Sacred Defense [eight-year Iran-Iraq war in 1989-88] where they performed different roles in the defense front. 
The Leader rejected accusations of patriarchy against Islam, saying both men and women enjoy privileges in this religion. 
In the capitalist system where money is superior to human and anyone who can gather more money is more valuable, the system becomes patriarchal given men’s ability in gaining wealth.
The western society abuses women in two ways, according to the Leader, in the work space and by promoting a lustful view.
“The main purpose of raising the issue of women’s freedom in the West was to draw them from the home to factories and use them as cheap workforce,” he said. 
The capitalist system also convinces women through different means that their interest and value lie in a behavior that spotlights their sexual attractions for men out on the street, he explained. 
“This is the biggest blow to the dignity and position of women,” 
Ayatollah Khamenei said the freedom claimed by the capitalist system is the very “slavery and disrespect” to women. 
“Seriously avoiding the western view about women is a practical necessity,” he said.
He also called for clarification of this “disastrous view” about the genders, calling for the use of social networks to promote the view of Islam about men and women through brief phrases and initiatives such as hashtags.  
In addition, the Leader referred to the issue of Hijab (veiling) in Islam, calling it an “inviolable religious necessity.”
“But this inviolable necessity should not cause those who do not observe it completely to be accused of being non-religious or anti-revolution,” he said, adding that even those women are the wives and daughters of this country. 
“We all have flaws too that we need to address as much as we can.” 
In the recent incidents in the country where efforts were made to discourage women from wearing headscarves, it was the women themselves who resisted, he said. 
“The women did not remove their hijab and hit the promoters of this campaign in the mouth.”