Statements of the Supreme Leader in Meeting with a Group of Nurses on the Occasion of 'Birth of Lady Zainab' (PBUH)

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

I also extend my congratulations on the very dear and auspicious occasion of the birth of Lady Zainab the Great (peace be upon her) to all Muslim women around the world, and especially to the honorable and devoted women and the distinguished women of the Islamic Republic of Iran - the devoted mothers and wives.

I would like to say something on the occasion of Nurses' Day, and that is: if we want to evaluate the value of the various services that different segments of people offer to each other, we should consider that any service that directly relates to humans, any service that is a form of consolation to other humans, any service where the provider endures more hardship, and any service that is based on knowledge and awareness and education, is more valuable. In this case, I think that nursing service is among the most valuable professions and services. Because a nurse deals directly with humans, is a consoler to a human who needs consolation and empathy and help, and also, thanks be to God, it is a work based on knowledge and education.

A nurse deals with patients, with wakefulness and pain, and their hardship is greater than others; therefore, their profession is a dear and valuable one. These are truths; it is not that people want to flatter nurses - whether male or female. The reality is such. When a task is very great and very dear, both parties are responsible for it: one is the people; who must consider that task dear and regard its owner as honored; the other is the person themselves who has this dear thing and this great task in their hands. They themselves must also honor it.

I say to our dear nurses - both male and female nurses: you who have had the success to take on this great task and perform this valuable service, honor it as well. Do not let, God forbid, with any negligence or inappropriate behavior, such a great and valuable task be tarnished. The more and more correctly you provide this service, the better the affairs of people's lives will be, and your reward and merit will be higher. May God reward you. And may this great service be a blessed service for you and an effective service for our people in advancing their affairs.

My sisters! The issue of women and the treatment of societies towards them is a matter that has been raised among societies and various civilizations for a long time. Always half of the world's people are women. The sustenance of life in the world is as dependent on women as it is on men. Women naturally undertake the greatest tasks of creation. Fundamental tasks of creation, such as reproduction and child-rearing, are in the hands of women. So the issue of women is an important issue and has existed in societies, among thinkers, and in the morals and customs of various nations for a long time. Islam has chosen a prominent position in this regard; it has prevented excess and negligence and has warned all the people of the world. Islam has completely put in their place those men who, due to physical power or financial ability, used to exploit women and men and sometimes harass and humiliate women, and placed women in their true position and even in some respects, placed women on par with men: 'Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women...' Muslim man, Muslim woman. Devout man, devout woman. Man who prays at night, woman who prays at night.

Thus, in Islam, all these spiritual ranks and human degrees are equally divided between men and women. In these matters, men and women are equal and equivalent. Whoever works for God, 'whether male or female'; whether they are a man or a woman, 'We will surely give them a good life.'

In some places, Islam has even preferred women over men. For example, where a man and a woman are parents who have a child, this child, although the child of both, must serve the mother more. The mother's right over the child is greater, and the child's duty towards the mother is heavier.

There are many narrations in this regard: the Holy Prophet, in response to someone who asked, 'Who should I be kind to?' said, 'Your mother.' That is, 'to your mother.' He said the same thing the second time; he said the same thing the third time. The fourth time he was asked, he said, 'Your father.' That is, 'to your father.' Thus, in the family scale and in relation to children, the woman's right is heavier. Of course, this is not because God Almighty wanted to prefer some over others. Rather, it is because women endure more hardship.

This is also divine justice. More hardship means more right. More suffering means higher value. All these are based on justice. In financial matters, such as the right of the family and the right of family leadership in exchange for the duty of managing the family, Islam's method is balanced. Islamic law has not allowed even a particle of injustice to be done to women or men in these matters. A right has been placed for men and a right for women. A weight has been placed in the man's scale and a weight in the woman's scale. Those who are meticulous in these matters, if they pay attention, will see these. They have also been written in books. Today, our learned and virtuous women, thanks be to God, know these issues better than others and better than men and promote and explain them. This is also about the rights of men and women.

There is also a fundamental point where Islam has stood firm, and that is that over time, because men's morals have been harsher, their willpower in dealing with problems stronger, and their bodies heavier, they have held important tasks and various responsibilities and powers, and this has given men the opportunity to exploit the opposite gender - to their advantage. Look and see which of the kings, the wealthy, and the powerful in their courts and institutions, with money and position and power, have not, in some way, reached out to exploit and abuse women?

Islam has stood here with full power and strength and placed a boundary between men and women in society. From Islam's perspective, no one has the right to cross and break this boundary; because from Islam's perspective, the family is very important. The relationship between men and women in the family environment is one way, and in the social environment, it is another way. If the regulations that Islam has placed as a barrier between men and women in the social environment are broken, the family will be ruined. In the family, often the woman and sometimes the man may be oppressed. Islamic culture is the culture of non-mixing of men and women. Such a life continues with happiness and can turn and move correctly and with the observance of rational standards and move forward. Islam has been strict here. If the boundary placed in society is broken, whether by women or men, Islam is strict against it; exactly the opposite of what the world's lustful people have wanted and done. The powerful and the wealthy and the strong, their men, their women, their subordinates, and those who lived with them and for them, have always acted contrary to this. They have wanted this veil between men and women to be removed, which, of course, is harmful to the social life and bad for the society's morals. It is harmful for preserving the society's chastity and especially the worst for the family. This shakes the foundation of the family.

Islam gives importance to the family. All the current dispute of the Western propaganda loudspeakers and horns with Muslims is over this. You see how sensitive they are to the 'veil'! If this veil is in the Islamic Republic, they consider it ugly. If it is in the universities of Arab countries, where young female students, with knowledge and awareness and with will and choice, have turned to the veil, they show sensitivity. If it is among political parties, they show sensitivity. If it is in schools and even elementary schools in their own countries - even though it is under their control - they show sensitivity. So, the point of dispute is here. Of course, in their propaganda, they constantly shout that women's rights in Islam or in the Islamic Republic have been violated. They themselves do not believe in this issue and know that women's rights in the Islamic Republic have not been weakened but strengthened. Look and see whether the number of female students and female students in higher education centers is more today in Iran or was it more during the rule of the tyrants? You see that it is more today. The number of outstanding female students with top grades in education is more today or was it more then? You see that it is more today. The number of women working in medical and treatment centers and in various scientific centers in this country is more today or was it more then? You see that it is more today. The number of women who appear powerfully in the country's political scene and in international forums and defend the rights and views of this country and this nation - which is their own country and nation - is more today or was it more then? You see that it is more today. In those days, women went on various trips with different delegations; but it was ceremonial. It was for pleasure and to show themselves to this and that. But today, the Muslim woman has a scientific or political or service presence in global forums, in various global conferences, in scientific centers, and in universities. These are valuable.

In those days, they would pull girls out of the warm and chaste embrace of families as 'model girls' and 'worthy girls' and plunge them into the mire of corruption. But today, there is no such thing. Where are women's rights violated? Where women's education is prevented; where women's employment in jobs suitable for women is prevented; where women's service or service to women is prevented, and also where women are humiliated. Go and look at American societies! You will see that women are humiliated there. The family woman is humiliated by her husband. The family mother is humiliated by her children. The right of motherhood, as it is in Islamic centers, does not exist there.

A sentence was said in a famous speech at an international center - which I do not want to mention the details here - about the family. The reports that reached us from there indicated that the people of that country showed great interest in that sentence; because the state of the family in those countries is shattered. Women are oppressed there; but here, that boundary between men and women exists. The meaning of that boundary is not that men and women do not study in the same environment, do not worship in the same environment, do not work in the same environment, and do not buy and sell in the same environment - which these cases are abundant - but it means that they have limits and boundaries in their social ethics. And this is a very good thing. Women here preserve their veil. Our people have chosen the chador. Of course, we never said that 'it must be the chador, and nothing but the chador.' We said that 'the chador is better than other veils.' But our women want to preserve their veil. They also like the chador. The chador is our national dress. The chador, before being an Islamic veil, is an Iranian veil. It belongs to our people and is our national dress.

There are many educated, Muslim, faithful, studious women who are either studying or teaching the best sciences at the highest levels in universities, and this is a source of pride for the Islamic system. There are women who, thanks be to God, have the highest specializations in medicine and in various sciences - in the field of humanities, in the field of experimental sciences, and in the field of other various sciences. There are women who have advanced in religious sciences and reached high levels. One day there was a noble lady in Iran - in Isfahan - named 'Lady of Isfahan' who was a very high-ranking lady. She was a mujtahida and a mystic and a jurist. But it was only her. Today, thanks be to God, there are many young girls who will reach high scientific, jurisprudential, and philosophical positions in the not-too-distant future. These are the pride of the Islamic system; and the advancement of women means this.

The West wants to impose its culture everywhere. Western culture is nudity. Of course, let me tell you that this nudity, this corruption and promiscuity, and this scandalous form that some women have in many Western countries, thanks be to God, is not universal even in the West itself. This is something that, due to their own wrong propaganda, is increasing day by day. Otherwise, even up to forty, fifty years ago, it was not to this extent in the Western countries themselves. They want to export the same corruption and promiscuity that they themselves have fallen into to Islamic countries as well. But we do not want this. This is harmful to social life and harmful to them as well. Wherever it is, it is harmful. The Islamic method is the best for us. Our women have shown throughout the events of the revolution and after the revolution until today that in those things that are the real criteria of life and value and their prominence, they are at high levels. A mother who offers her children in the way of God and in the way of the goal - a goal that is sacred to her and is sacred before God - and does not frown, has done a prominent act and this is not a small matter. Measure this with any criterion and scale, it is great. A young woman who has preserved the honor of her husband and herself for ten, eleven years while her husband was a prisoner in the enemy's prisons, with utmost chastity and dignity and purity, is her work not valuable?! These are values.

Our women participated in the battlefield; they participated in the reconstruction field and in the field of showing psychological power, they were the most active. The best people who stood in the atmosphere of various enemy propaganda were the women of our country. The enemy's propaganda is in the form of various criticisms, making a mountain out of a molehill, magnifying a small problem tenfold, and saying it from this radio and that radio. Unfortunately, some of our own internal mercenary writers, who seem to have a vendetta with the revolution, write these things in such and such a magazine and such and such a publication. Some advertise with leaflets and some with open and legal publications. They pay people to stand in line for such and such a product or on the bus and speak ill. They spend this money for rumor-mongering and ruining the atmosphere. The best people who stood in such an atmosphere were the women of our country; these same faithful women who, thanks be to God and to the chagrin of the enemies, are numerous and numerous and form the majority of our women.

This is the same Zainabi and Fatemi women's society. This is the same Islamic education and Islamic system. These are the values, prominence, and freedom of women. Of course, the women of our country should know that there is still much room for progress and advancement. I ask the women of our country - whether those who are studying; whether those who are graduates; whether those who are present in political and social and service activities; whether those who are responsible in various sectors and have responsibilities and whether those who are at home, but their hearts are alive with the light and spirit of the revolution and keep the home environment Islamic - to think more about the role of the Muslim woman in the progress of their society. Think about political organizations, valuable scientific work, raising the level of knowledge and information, and standing against enemies in all centers and fields where standing is effective. You see that today the enemy, openly and secretly and how savagely, attacks the sanctities of Islam. Throughout the fifteen years - whether those ten years during the blessed life of the great Imam, may God's mercy be upon him, or after that until today - the enemies of the Islamic system have not for a moment given up their intention to strike the Islamic Republic. If sometimes you see that they are apparently silent, they are plotting. If you see that, thanks be to God, the Islamic system is firmly standing in its place, it is because their blow has not been effective; not that they have not struck.

Some of the foolish leaders of today's global arrogance express their words openly; some do not say and keep it hidden. Most of the events that happen in our region are directed in some way to strike Islam and the Islamic system and the Muslim nation. These very recent events - the American military deployment to the Persian Gulf, the arrival of marines and aircraft carriers and the sensational propaganda against Iraq's military movement and Iraq's own military movement - are, in our view, extremely suspicious and extremely suspect. It is clear that global arrogance is thinking of establishing its foothold in this region by any means it can. Once the British had absolute dominance in the Persian Gulf, which, thanks be to God, the Islamic movement and the awakening of the Iranian nation and various events scattered them from the Persian Gulf. Today, the Americans also want to fill their lost foothold and the British's foothold there again.

What are you doing in the Persian Gulf?! What does the security of the Persian Gulf have to do with you that you get up from the other side of the world, come and interfere in this part of the world?! They say 'we have interests here.' Is this a reason for any country to interfere in the affairs of other countries and say 'we have interests'?! Then what are international laws for?! Then what is this United Nations with all its breadth and length for?! Then what are all these claims of global resolutions and international conventions for?! All these are so that a powerful bully state cannot get up and go to such and such a country or such and such a region or such and such a lake or such and such a gulf or such and such an important international waterway on the pretext that I have interests there. Why do you have such a large presence in a region that has nothing to do with you - that is, in the Persian Gulf - on the pretext that 'Iraq wants and intends to invade' - and Iraq keeps denying it?!

These are issues that the Iranian nation must be sensitive to. Those who think the enemy has fallen asleep should not think that one can live with pleasant dreams! The Commander of the Faithful said: 'Whoever sleeps, will not be slept upon.' That is, the eyes of those who have a great goal and naturally have great enemies should not sleep! All the cries of our great Imam during this period were for the Iranian nation not to lose its sensitivity to the world's events. Today, this sensitivity must exist and, thanks be to God, it does. Throughout this country, there are so many faithful and party-affiliated young people; families strongly committed to the principles of the revolution; faithful women; faithful men; strong hearts and high spirits, in all scenes, that by the grace of the Lord, they can defend their Islam, their Islamic Republic, their dignity, and their country's independence against any enemy.

We hope that God Almighty will make you ladies and honorable women, who are each engaged in some part of the country's work - whether university work, service work, scientific work, or political work - successful and supported, and God willing, the model of Zainab the Great (peace be upon her) will always remain alive and embodied before the eyes of our men and women.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.