Ayatollah Shabestari speaks to Public Culture Council of East Azerbaijan

Rasa - A meeting of the Public Culture Council of East Azerbaijan province has been held in Iran's northwestern city of Tabriz in the presence of many important religious and political figures.

News ID: 997

Date: 17 August 2014 - 18:09

Rasa News Agency reports – A meeting of the Public Culture Council of East Azerbaijan [province] has been held in Tabriz in the presence of the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in East Azerbaijan (Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed-Shabestari), the director of the Policy Council for Friday prayer leaders (Hujjat al-Islam Seyyed Reza Taghavi), the secretary-general of the Public Culture Council (Hujjat al-Islam Sayyed Hoseyn Shahmoradi), the provincial governor (Esma’il Jabbarzadeh), and Friday prayer leaders of the province of East Azerbaijan at the home of the Friday prayer leader of Tabriz (Ayatollah Shabestari).

The Public Culture Council of Iran is a sub-division of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. The chairman of the Public Culture Council is also the minister of the Culture and Islamic Guidance department. The declared goal of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution is to ensure that the education and culture of Iran remains “100% Islamic” as per Imam Khomeyni directed. This includes working against outside “cultural influences” and ideologies.

At the meeting, Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed-Shabestari, the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei) in the province of East Azerbaijan, stressed that culture is a set of beliefs, morals, customs and traditions that prevail in a society which originated from human nature, and stated: “A general culture which emanates from religious doctrines and teachings remains far from fanaticism and extremism.”

His Eminence stated that investment in culture is effective and important, particularly in reducing costs at a time when the state is facing a budget problem, and noted: “A proper investment in culture does not require such huge budgets for prisons, judiciary, court and for the security forces.”

In another part of his speech, Ayatollah Shabestari said that addiction, divorce, improper hijab (veiling) and poor morals are a few of the important cultural dilemmas facing the Islamic Republic of Iran. He said: “Unfortunately, statistics on the high rate of divorce suggest that within our society we are suffering some cultural problems.”

He criticized the poor state of hijab in Iranian society, but he welcomed and appreciated the efforts of the Iranian capital city of Tehran’s municipal government for its efforts to segregate the genders. These actions are considered as a positive step for protecting morality in Iranian society, which is an Islamic society. “Gender segregation in universities should be implemented because it will result in the growth of knowledge in the country. Those who are critical of it, should know that the municipal government of Tehran has shown that gender segregation is achievable,” His Eminence stated.

Ayatollah Shabestari also called for a serious fight against drugs, and said: “Addiction is one of the most important social disorders as it does not just affect the individual, but society as well. Drug addiction is a significant source of divorce among its users.”

At the end of his speech to those participating in the Public Culture Council, Ayatollah Shabestari stressed upon the importance of supporting and accelerating the approval of decisions of the Public Culture Council in the provinces in accordance to the reports of the meetings and decisions of the General Council of East Azerbaijan during the last several years.

111/112