In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani commemorated the Islamic Republic National Day on Farvardin 12 in the Iranian solar calendar year, which falls on April 1 in normal years and March 31 in leap years, as the anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying “Imam Khomeini had, from the very beginning of the Islamic Revolution, insisted on drafting the Constitution and the role of people’s votes in choosing the ‘Islamic Republic’ and running the country.”
President Rouhani referred to the holding of several referendums in the first years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, adding “democracy and Islam in their true sense of the word were realized in the country and today, several decades after the Revolution, we have the appropriate condition in the country for the people to freely come to the ballot boxes and express their opinions.”
He went on to express hope that this ‘religious democracy’ would be maintained and strengthened in the country.
The President also congratulated the nation on the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Hazrat Fatima Zahra (SA), which marks the national Women’s Day in Iran.
He deemed Hazrat Fatima Zahra the best role model for women in their individual and social lives, saying “women have been one of the central parts of society since the beginning of Islam.”
He considered women’s participation in some social and political arenas better and more suitable than men’s, saying “today, in many social conditions and various levels, women can better defend the country’s social and political interests and clarify them for the society.”
He stressed that the position of women was improved after the Islamic Revolution, adding “before the Revolution, some held backward views on women and confined them to the private sphere, but Imam Khomeini stressed that women should stand next to men in political and social spheres.”
Today, women are present in many management centers, decision-making institutes, research and academic centers and play a significant role in advancing the society’s objectives by their valuable participation, he added.
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