Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in Tehran on Wednesday while addressing a group of Iranian women in the run-up to the celebrations commemorating the birthday anniversary of Hazrat Fatemeh Zahra (SA), the beloved daughter of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
“The absolute brazenness of the West comes into sight when it presents itself as the forerunner of advocacy for women’s rights, whilst it is responsible for flurries of blows dealt to the dignity and prestige of women. This could be explained as utter shamelessness.
He stated that one would feel deeply ashamed to know about last year’s social movement, in which Western women publicized their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment.
“This is what they suggest by women’s rights and freedom. This is by no means freedom, but rather utter slavery,” the Leader said.
He went on say that the intermingling of men and women in Western societies, contrary to the propagated notion, has failed to diminish men’s carnal desires and has instead amplified it, resulting in women and girls being sexually harassed on streets, in workplaces, educational centers and even in military facilities.
“Sex trade, sexual slavery, violation of all moral and humanitarian principles, and legalization of issues that are forbidden in all divine religions” are now widely prevalent across the West, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out.
He noted that Western women are being “alienated,” describing the Western capitalist system as a patriarchal one.
The Leader also criticized Western capitalism, saying people's capital has more value than humanity in the economic and political system in Western countries.
Men, therefore, have priority over women in terms of capitalism because they can earn more money than women, Ayatollah Khamenei argued.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution also underlined the importance of employing efficient, experienced, knowledgeable, and wise women at various levels of Iran’s decision-making apparatus and expressed his satisfaction with the high number of women scholars and scientists in the Islamic Republic.
Ayatollah Khamenei also pointed to motherhood and home-lovingness as the two main and primary roles of each and every woman.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution highlighted that caring and reformist thinkers have voiced serious concerns over family disintegration in Western countries, but the problem is getting complicated so quickly that nothing could be done either to stop or remedy it.
He described hijab as a religious and inevitable duty for all Muslim women, emphasizing that no Iranian woman should be labeled as non-religious or anti-revolutionary if she fails to fully honor the obligation.