In recent weeks, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has denounced a series of seemingly unrelated things, from the Turkish resort town of Antalya to Iranians' sleep patterns to brand name products to the teaching of English.
But if you follow the Supreme Leader’s speeches faithfully, you will begin to see a method in his—shall we say—obsessions.
In a recent meeting with the impressive-sounding High Council of the Center for the Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress, Khamenei said that the goal of Iran’s Islamic Revolution was to prepare the way for “Islamic Civilization” through an "Islamic-Iranian" development model.
The internationally accepted models of Islamic development, he said, were inefficient and based on faulty principles like humanism. He listed Iran’s achievements in the quest for Islamic civilization, as well Iran’s assets in the quest, such as its religious seminaries.
Khamenei spelled out for his audience the stages in the journey toward the utopia he has in mind:
1. The Islamic Revolution. Done!
2. The Islamic System. Done! It is something that must be instituted immediately after the revolution, and the Ayatollah Khomeini did it.
3. The Islamic State. In progress. This means having a state based on totally Islamic models and principles. Until it is achieved, Iran cannot move on to the next stage. (He did not say whether the Islamic Republic of Iran would sue ISIS for using the term “Islamic State”).
4. The Islamic Society. To be achieved. When the state is finally and totally Islamic, then it will be time to turn Iranian society into a wholly Islamic society. This is when the “Islamic lifestyle” will prevail. In a meeting with poets in early 2013, the Supreme Leader said that “jihad for lifestyle reform” was equally as important as military jihad.
5. The Islamic Civilization. The final frontier. Iran will arrive at Islamic civilization when everything—from ethics, spirituality and justice to the smallest details of behavior and conduct—have become Islamic.
But the journey towards any utopian vision must by definition not be easy, and Khamenei’s vision is no exception. A utopian project must face and overcome enemies and obstacles.
Under Khamenei, construction of the Islamic State proceeds apace, but his eyes are already on the fourth and fifth stages in his dream.
Now, consider Khamenei’s other obsessions in view of his grand vision.
Antalya, Today's Sodom or Gomorrah
Iran has no shortage of blue water beaches and resorts, but to use them, you have to wear all-concealing “Islamic” swimsuits. Iranian beaches are gender segregated, and women are often not allowed to swim at all, in any outfit. And if you plan to break out the mojitos to celebrate the beauty of nature, you risk being flogged.
For these reasons, deviant Iranians who can afford it seek out beaches abroad. Since few countries welcome Iranian tourists without a visa, this usually means Turkey. The Turkish resort town of Antalya overlooking the turquoise shores of the Mediterranean has become a mecca (forgive the pun!) for Iranian vacationers.
Now, conservatives in Iran are livid that Antalya plans to host to a nude beach as well. There are no direct flights to Antalya from Iran, but this has not stopped Iranian vacationers. Iranian airlines fly to a nearby military airport, from which travelers can simply catch a bus to the city.
The government of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad banned ads promoting trips to Antalya, but Iranian advertisers have bypassed the ban by transmitting directly to smartphones, or placing the ads on social networks. Khamenei has demanded that authorities must “somehow” stop them.
In a speech on April 25, Khamenei declared that traveling to this city of “vice and corruption” would “invalidate” prayers.
Brand: “I hate that word”
Iranians have adopted many English loan words, and apply the English word “brand,” to brand name western products from cosmetics to watches.
On April 27, Khamenei met Iranian workers on the occasion of the upcoming International Labor Day on May 1. After praising workers for working, and condemning Marxists who he said later turned into American mercenaries, he blamed the “nouveau riche” for buying foreign goods, thereby causing economic difficulties that workers must face. “Unfortunately, there is no shortage of nouveau riche in this country,” he said. He added that he "hates" the word "brand." He exhorted Iranians to participate in a “resistance economy” in which the word would have no place.
Khamenei apparently believes that by cleansing the language of western words, he can alleviate Iran’s economic problems. But he doesn’t stop there.
English: A Low-Cost but Effective Colonial Weapon
On May 2, Khamenei presented his advice to teachers. He said that if they do their jobs well, the “resistance economy” would succeed. But not everything, he said, is going well. Iran’s enemies—Americans, Zionists, and other unnamed villains—want to establish their dominance through a “colonial cultural project.” According to Khamenei, western thinkers have repeatedly said that this approach is a much more cost-effective and useful method for wielding influence than “19th-century colonial conquests.”
Spearheading this cultural invasion, of course, is the English language. Khamenei was dismayed, he said, to learn that people are promoting English “even in kindergartens.” He hastened to add that he had nothing against foreign languages, but that the main problem is “promoting alien culture in the country and among children, adolescents, and young people.” He pointed out that other countries have projects in place to “counter the spread of alien languages and cultures, but unfortunately, in our country, we have no specific plans...and we have left the doors wide open.” He said “certain Western countries” do not allow the promotion of the Persian language, while Iran continues to promote their culture and their language. Khamenei did not name any of the western countries that don’t allow promotion of the Persian language.
English is not a new obsession for the Supreme Leader. In December 2013, he warned the High Council of the Cultural Revolution that English textbooks “are conduits for a western lifestyle, an English lifestyle.” Even if youngsters forgot the language, he said, the western influences on their lifestyle would remain.
This time around, however, his message has been picked up by others. On Friday, May 6, Ahmad Elmolhoda, Khamenei’s representative in Khorasan and Mashhad’s Friday Prayer Leader, went further than the Supreme Leader, attacking the Englsh language itself. “Not only is English not the language of science, but it is the language of ignorance,” he said. “The English mischievously presented it as the language of science.” He also declared that translations of German philosophy into Persian are far superior to English translations of the same works.
No one knows for sure, but Elmolhoda must be very knowledgeable about German philosophy and highly fluent in both English and German to judge translations with such confidence.
Un-Islamic Sleep Patterns
On April 25, in his pursuit of stage 4 of his grand vision -- “The Islamic Society” -- Khamenei criticized Iranian sleep patterns and identified the culprit: Late night TV broadcasts. “When you sleep late, not you only do not wake up at dawn, but you also miss morning prayers. I have witnessed that in some cities people wake up at 9am. They start opening shops at 9 or 9:30 in the morning. This is wrong.”
Nouveau Riche Joyriders
IranWire readers might remember a report we published in October 2014 about the “rich kids of Tehran,” and the controversy that ensued after an Instagram page purported to reveal the lives of Tehran’s gilded youth.
The Supreme Leader, in any case, forgets nothing. Last year, in a meeting with police commanders, he told them they must have a “security answer” to “youngsters drunk with wealth and arrogance who roam the streets riding showy cars.” He also told them, “We have received reports that certain individuals who have received money and orders from their command centers are trying to push our youngsters toward prostitution and sin at nighttime gatherings.”
He provided no details about the “command centers” that are freely spending money trying to foil his grand vision of Islamic Civilization by driving the young Iranians to sin, prostitution and joyrides. But it would not be too far-fetched to speculate that he means the same Americans, Zionists and former Marxist mercenaries he holds responsible for Iran’s other ills.
The Supreme Leader must worry that utopia is still a long way off. While police may have taken action to stop joyrides, Iranians continue to consume Western products, adopt un-Islamic sleep patterns, roast their bare flesh on the beaches of Antalya, and encourage their children to learn English.
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