Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks while addressing a gathering of Friday prayer leaders from across the country in Tehran on Wednesday.
“Under the slogan of religion, the Islamic Republic not only saved itself, but also [enabled] Iran’s development, thus challenging the Westerners’ long-time effort to portray religion and state as incompatible,” the Leader stated, describing it as a great feat.
‘Western mafia fuming at Iran’
Ayatollah Khamenei said the Islamic Republic's progress in different fields has enraged its enemies who have long been plotting against the country.
“The Western powers’ mafia, at the head of them the Zionists and their capitalists, with the United States serving as their showcase, are raging against this bright fact, and are constantly plotting to inflict blows on the Islamic Republic,” he noted.
The Leader added that Westerners have also been fuming because of how successfully Iranian women invalidated the West’s “200 to 300-year-long efforts” to prove that women could not be successful as long as they are bound by moral and religious obligations.
“The Iranian women have, over the past 40 years, been staging a presence on various scientific, social, athletic, political, managerial, economic, and cultural arenas and achieved great successes and honor, while observing the Islamic dress code too,” Ayatollah Khamenei asserted.
He further hailed the Iranian women for their "outstanding" feats in different arenas, from literature to athletic competitions, wearing hijab while receiving their awards and medals on podiums in front of hundreds of millions of global TV viewers.
‘Western colonialist logic should be exposed’
The Leader underscored how the issue of Islamic hijab had featured in the Friday prayer leaders’ speeches over the past week.
“In such subject matters, one should opine in a very genteel and logical manner, and away from all unnecessary sensations, and expose and detail [the nature] of the West’s colonialist logic,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.