The Causes of Western Governments and International Communities with Iran on Human Rights Issues
Despite repeated violations of human rights by Westerners, they consider themselves responsible for the protection and development of human rights in the world and have therefore been accused of human rights violations in Iran. The major accusations made by Ayatollah Khamenei in his remarks that sought to be answered and explained are as follows:
Issuing revolution (13 July 1989), Reversalism (31 May 1990), anti-democracy republic, reactionary republic and a republic of old and obsolete foundations (27 March 1992) anti-democracy and free elections (4 April 1992), aid to terrorists (8 May 1993), intolerance and fundamentalism, (1 February 1990) disregard for human rights, especially women’s rights (20 November 1989), opposition to peace and advocacy of war (18 May 1993), financial support or weapons to Islamic movements (3 February 1995), procurement of weapons (3 February 1995) and the making of atomic and chemical bombs (4 June 1997).
Ayatollah Khamenei refutes the accusations and defends respect for human rights in Iran by refuting the claims of human rights defenders. While rejecting the allegations, he blames Westerners for human rights violations, denouncing Iran as innocent and explaining the reasons for the accusations against Iran. The reasons for the confrontation of the Western governments and the international community with Iran can be summarized for several reasons:
First: Islamism by reciting pure Muhammadan Islam and defending the dignity of Islam, the Quran, and the Great Prophet, and other divine prophet and counteracting the conspiracy to insult these sacred things, such as those seen by the author of The Satanic Verses (23 November 1989)
Second: Not separating religion from politics and foundation of the Islamic Republic (20 April 2000)
Third: The political independence of this system means its inability to withstand the usual bullying of the superpowers and their shortening of the resources of Iran (29 January 2005)
Fourth: Announcing the Islamic Republic’s specific solution to the Palestinian issue, which involves the dissolution of the usurper Zionist regime and the formation of a Palestinian state, consisting of the Palestinians themselves and the coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Palestine (1 May 2002)
Fifth: Political and spiritual support for all Islamic movements and denouncing pressure on Muslims everywhere in the world, especially in Palestine (26 November 2003)
Sixth: Striving for unity and awakening of the Islamic ummah, political and economic cooperation of Islamic governments and countries, and efforts to consolidate the authority of Muslim nations within the framework of the “Great Islamic Ummah” (26 April 2005)
Seventh: Rejecting Western-imposed culture, which Western governments with narrow-minded and biased intend to admit to all peoples of the world, and insists on reviving Islamic culture in Muslim countries (12 October 1994)
Eighth: Fighting corruption and sexual misconduct, which some Western governments, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, have recently shamelessly deviated from, and are on their way to and have been planning and trying for decades to bring various forms of corruption to Islamic countries (18 May 1993)
Ninth: There are some very important internal problems in the Western countries and covering the problems with these positions (21 March 2005)
He stated that the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran propagate in the name of the international community (23 April 1997, 9 April 2015) and their claim to the world (4 December 1991) is based on the above reasons (1991) and the fateful reading of their management for Third World countries (22 September 1987) and passive demonstration of Iran against the West (7 May 1997), attempting to undermine Iran by accusing Iran of human rights violations, Iran’s international standing between Islamic countries, the Middle East, and the rest of the world and the gap between Iran and public opinion (23 July 1997).
Explaining the Human Rights Situation in Iran
After explaining the causes of the West’s confrontation with Iran on human rights issues, we will present some of Ayatollah Khamenei’s defences of various accusations against Iran. It should be noted that given the widespread human rights issues and the Supreme Leader’s explanation of the state of affairs in various fields of human rights in Iran is not possible in this short story and it requires the preparation of numerous books and articles, for this purpose, they have merely limited their view of the situation to the four most important areas of human rights in Iran.
1. Life-Extinguishing Penalties
From the point of view of the Supreme Leader in the Islamic community, after believing in Islam, the most important will of God, which is the pride of the Islamic Republic’s government and system, is to uphold the divine sanctity that has been embodied in the guardianship laws approved by the community (31 December 1990). On the one hand, one of the frequent accusations brought by the international community to the Islamic Republic of Iran is the implementation of divine sanctions. In response to this accusation, while referring to verse 229 of Surah al-Baqarah, which states: “These are the limits of God, so do not transgress them. Whoever transgresses the limits of God – it is those who are the wrongdoers,” the teachings of Islam and the teachings of Islam and the doctrine of this divine religion are more advanced than the products of the minds of the Western jurists and thus they consider the way of reforming societies the implementation of divine limits (4 June 1994). and believe that “human rights are realized in the light of Islamic justice and Islamic law, and in the judiciary, human rights must be aware of the illicit standards and norms that the West offers today regarding drug traffickers in Iran.” They know that due to the harmful effects of narcotics in society, even once their execution is low, their execution is not a violation of human rights (3 February 1995, 19 March 1999).
2. Women’s Rights
From the Supreme Leadership’s point of view, with half the population of each society being women and the consistency of life in the world dependent on them and undertaking important tasks such as reproduction and education of children, the issue of women is very important (12 October 1994). Islam’s view of women is based on the facts of existence and nature of women, and their specific responsibilities and jobs, and to bring them to their fullest existence (22 October 1997); the reason for this is the unnerving, unreasonable, ignorance-driven movement with divine traditions and the inwardness and resentment of women (22 October 1997), he views the existence of the female issue in all present societies as a kind of cynicism, suggesting a short-sighted approach to human issues and an indication of human inability to solve the problem, despite widespread cultural efforts and activities (25 December 1991).
Ayatollah Khamenei has said that the Western world is thinking too late to revive women’s rights and seeks to compensate for this backwardness with false controversy over time, to denigrate Western countries in the face of a lack of suffrage, education, and property, a violation of women’s rights before modern times (19 April 2014) and attempts to manipulate women by bringing them to the scene of social activity and providing them with all the necessary grounds for slipping and consequently their sexual exploitation in the contemporary era. He noted that women should not have political, social, and economic responsibilities in the West, the issue of women in those countries should be resolved and he considered the situation of women good, praising and positive, they know that it is done by encouraging women to remove the veil between men and women and to mix women and men and to strip women of their veil and indigenous chastity (21 April 2010).
Ayatollah Khamenei’s analysis of the history of civilization in Europe is that the European and Western model of a woman is derived from the ancient Roman and Greek models. In this model, the woman is a means for men’s enjoyment, for style and consumption of make-up and sexuality in public and intimidating between sexes (13 November 1991).
Ayatollah Khamenei has repeatedly censured the history of women’s rights in Europe, with a cynical stance, calling on the West to respond to the humiliation that has been inflicted on her by her husband. Fathers and husbands to their children and wives exemplify the suffering of women in the contemporary Western world (22 October 1997), and such disasters have resulted in the disintegration of families and the loss of human comfort (6 December 1989).
While noting the role of women in the Islamic community in the role and position of Imam Khomeini in introducing Lady Fatimah al-Zahra and other leading female figures in Islam and reviving women’s rights, they consider the Islamic Revolution to be a misconception about women; because of the Islamic Revolution, women gained much of their legal personality and entered various social arenas (7 May 1997). and showed that women can play a leading role in historical and global developments in the shadow of the faith and awareness of the corruption created in historical and global developments and even in the shadow of purity and chastity and sense of responsibility, women can move men’s minds, and in some cases ahead of them (14 July 1989).
From her point of view, the power to analyze and lecture women in political fields, social and jihadi activities, to help people and the revolution, to create self-awareness and to attend international forums and various international conferences and to attend scientific or political or service centers in academics and universities are all the fruits of the Islamic Revolution (16 January 1990). The revolution for women has led to the light and growth of scientific and ethical and political understanding and presence in the fields and the development of human and beneficial personalities for society in a real sense and all this while keeping the religion, chastity, piety, dignity and modesty of the Muslim woman (6 January 1991).
3. The Sovereignty of the People
Concerning the sovereignty of the West, which is referred to as “democracy” in the West, Ayatollah Khamenei believes that there is as much freedom of choice and freedom of voting in the Middle East as in the Islamic Republic of Iran. He regards the tendency and respect for human values, justice, dignity and a firm and sincere belief in the role of the people as features of Imam Khomeini’s political school (18 June 1989). From his point of view, in the political school of Imam Khomeini, with regard to the basic emphasis on the two elements of human and religion (10 February 1999), human identity is both valuable and dignified and powerful and effective and the result is valuable and dignified. and the valuable and dignified result is that people’s voices must play a vital role in managing the fate of human beings and society. Therefore, democracy in the political school of Imam Khomeini derived from the text of Islam – democracy is real and not like the cries of democracy under liberal democracy, slogans, deceit and seduction of people’s minds and the propaganda by coloured propaganda. In the political school of Imam, the vote of the people and democracy derives from “and whose affair is consultation among themselves” (Surah al-Shura: 38) and “It is He who supported you with His help and with the believers” (Surah al-Anfal: 62) and the results of the rule of Islam, Islamic teachings, Imam and revolution, and literally, are influential and decisive (3 June 2004). As a result of this view, “from the fifty days after the victory of the Great Islamic Revolution to fourteen months thereafter, two public referendums were held, one in which the Iranian people elected the Islamic Republic as the country’s political system and in another, they voted for the constitution.
Three elections in which members of the Assembly of Experts were appointed to write the Constitution, the President, and the remnants of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and to this day, there have always been free elections, with the passionate participation of the people to appoint the President and Members of Parliament in their legal time.” (18 May 1993).
They see freedom as the right of the nation to elect country officials within its own law, not the law of others. He refers to the right of the people to sovereignty as “religious democracy” and considers it a translation of the Islamic Republic, believing that the Islamic Revolution is one of the largest and youngest revolutions in the world and the most independent political system in the world (2 May 2001) and holds the freest elections, the most independent parliament and the most popular government (30 March 1990). He regards the Islamic Parliament as the most independent parliament and the strongest parliament whose lack of parties and lack of political control over its representatives is due to independence and freedom, the right of representatives and the nation. But representatives and other officials should not speak against the will of the people by abusing freedom of speech (24 October 1990).
4. Freedom
In their view, the freedom sought by the Islamic Republic is a freedom of expression and defined by Islam and the Islamic Republic’s system has been able to realize this freedom in society (31 May 1990). The freedom and democracy of the Islamic Republic are unique in all countries, and in no country in the Persian Gulf and in the Middle East region, no country or nation feels such a sense of freedom from the domination of tyrannical superpowers and authoritarian regimes in their own country (27 March 1992), they regard the concept of freedom as “social freedom” as a human right to think, say and choose, which has been honoured in tradition. He quoted the Commander of the Faithful as saying in Nahj al-Balaghah, that hierarchy and freedom were considered part of human nature and innate right, and even higher than other rights, and hence the school, Islam is considered unnecessary by the tyranny of Western thinkers and philosophers such as John Stuart Mill, Kant, Hegel etc. to explain the concept of freedom and other concepts of the humanities (4 October 1998).
From their point of view in the school of liberalism, human freedom is a true minus in the name of religion and God, and so they never consider the root of freedom to be godliness, while in Islam’s view, freedom has a divine root and the struggle for freedom is a divine duty (4 October 1998). Freedom is also unlimited, given the relative relevance of truth and moral values in Western liberalism, while in Islam there are definite values and truths that move towards those truths and values. Therefore, “freedom” is limited by these values.
In addition, in the West, freedom is constituted by material interests, and freedom is restricted by the endangerment of material interests; but in Islam, moral boundaries restrict freedom. In addition to the above differences, freedom in Western liberalism is incompatible with “duty,” whereas in Islam, freedom and duty are two sides of the same coin, and human beings, along with the right to liberty, are bound by religious orders, the path to perfection is, in fact, the philosophy of creation, worship, servitude, and the pursuit of happiness, justice, and freedom in the practice of religion (4 October 1998).
Differences in the foundations and principles of Islam and liberal democracy have so far led the Supreme Leader to repeatedly advise scholars and elites to refer to the correct Quranic and Islamic sources in explaining the humanities, including human rights and freedom, and to extract and explain the views of Islam and God in this regard, regardless of the laws and rules governing Western human rights (28 January 2004).
Referring to the lack of freedom of expression and the dictatorship and disregard for the opinions of the people, corruption, oppression, discrimination and abuse of state and court officials during the Pahlavi era (7 October 1998), regarding the status of freedom of expression and the press in Iran they believe that the freedom and democracy of the Islamic Republic are unique in all countries in the region.
In the Islamic system, the tolerance of dissent is overwhelming, and the presence of this freedom has led people and even religious minorities to reflect on criticism of issues in the press and even in the mass media such as radio and television (27 March 1992), but the reason for the lack of press freedom is due to opposition to Islam, to national independence and freedom and moral cleanliness and the real desire of these suspects is to open the United States’ feet and sell the country to enemies (31 May 1990).
Archive of Ayatollah Khamenei
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