TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Thursday slammed Western values which he said, unlike those in the Islamic republic, undermine femininism.
His comments come amid political tensions in Iran where conservatives want to strengthen measures preventing women and men from mixing while President Hassan Rowhani advocates more social freedoms. “Moral crises are increasing in the West, such as... adopting a wrong position about ‘women’ and seriously undermining the feminism wave,” Khamenei said in remarks posted on his website www.leader.ir.
In Iran, values concerning the role of women in society are inscribed in the constitution which states it is the “duty” of Iranian women to raise children within the respect of religion.
Khamenei made the remarks during a meeting with the Assembly of Experts, a body of religious leaders tasked with overseeing the activities of the supreme leader and who have the power to sack him.
The assembly met Khamenei after wrapping up its annual conference during which they discussed the West’s “cultural invasion”, such as liberal dress codes and concerts that violate religious law, media reported.
In June, 195 of the conservative-dominated parliament’s 290 MPs wrote to President Rouhani asking him to enforce the dress code law, denouncing what they called a Western “cultural invasion”.
Rowhani, a moderate elected in June 2013 after campaigning for greater cultural and social freedoms in Iran, has also stirred controversy.
AFP
