Addressing a meeting of women attending the National Festival of Women Achievements in Economy and Culture in the occasion of the birth anniversary of Lady Fatima Zahra, daughter of the Prophet of Islam held Sunday in Summit Hall, paid homage to this day as Mother’s Day, almost reciting a panegyric to Lady Fatima Zahra.
“I congratulate all Muslims especially Shiite Muslims on the occasion of the birth of the Prophet’s daughter, Ali’s wife, and mother of all Imams and especially of the heroine of Karbala, Zainab,” Rouhani said.
Asking a rhetorical question that whether with so brilliant and perfect a personality like Fatima Zahra, there would be a need to speak about the place and prestige of women still, Rouhai went on to say that “Lady Fatima Zahra not only provided an example for all women, but she also did so for all humanity.”
“According to Islamic criteria, we believe that neither men are the first gender, nor women are the second gender. We believe men and women not as confronting each other, but that women cooperate along with men in the same side, and both deserve human dignity and honor,” asserted Rouhani, and that “neither men are superior than women; neither women are inferior to men, and they share the same single soul.”
Rouhani pointed to the roles of women in Iranian history. “Centuries before, women in Iran fought for their rights, they acted accordingly, and finally they mastered the situation such as in Tobacco Movement when a woman warrior silenced the Shah of the time with breaking the shisha, telling the Shah that this was a Grand Ayatollah’s fatwa (religious decree),” he made resorts to history.
Rouhani also brought examples of the eve of the Revolution of 1979 to illustrate his case of women activism in political arena of Iran. “Women played no lesser role than men in before the Revolution and in bottlenecks of history they fought the Shah regime along with their fathers, brothers, and husbands,” he said.
“Today, our women are present with full prestige and chastity expected of them. How it is possible to forget half of the human community. How it is possible to make this half retreat to their solitude and desuetude by pretext of providing security to them,” Rouhani asked rhetorically.
Rohani said that equal opportunities, social rights, and equal responsibilities should be considered for women. “All should help attend the ultimately ambition of vindication of rights of women,” said Rouhani, calling ‘scientist clerics’ for ‘come to the fore and provide an interpretation of the fiqh quite compatible with today’s world,’ believing that “ since Islam has words for all human needs of today’s society.”
Rouhani also expressed hope that the future of Iran would provide more balanced and developed roles for women along with men.