Imam pointed out that the pillars of family had been collapsed in the Western countries because they had failed to pay attention to spiritual and moral values.
One of the Imam’s daughters narrates: “At the start of my marriage, I went to Hajj Agha so that he could give me some advice. He said: “If your husband is upset, or if he says something to you for whatever reason, or acts badly, at that time don’t say anything, even if you are in the right. Leave it until he has calmed down, and then say what you have to.” He also gave the exact same advice to my husband.
In the beginning I didn’t give this advice much importance. Later upon reflection, I saw that indeed the root of many of the family disputes came back to this very issue. Therefore, from then on, every time somebody has wanted advice about family issues, I have given them this very same advice of the Imam.
In 2016, Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, announced the general policies on family on the basis of Clause 1 of Article 110 of the Constitution and after consultation with the Expediency Council.
The text of the policies was issued to the heads of the three branches of government and to the head of the Expediency Council. The following is the full text of the policies issued on September 3, 2016.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
General Policies on Family
Family is a fundamental unit, the foundation of the Islamic community, the center of growth and transcendence of humans and a source of support for the health, blossoming, power and spiritual transcendence of the country and the Islamic Republic. Therefore, the Islamic Republic’s movement should be directed towards:
1. Creating a family-oriented society, strengthening family and its main functions on the basis of the Islamic paradigm of family. Family should be promoted as a center of growth, as a center for educating children on the basis of Islam, and as a center of tranquility.
2. Giving family a pivotal role in rules and regulations, plans, executive policies and all educational, cultural, social and economic policies, particularly the policies on housing and urban development.
3. Highlighting the relationship between family and the mosque with the purpose of preserving and promoting the Islamic-national identity and protecting family and society.
4. Launching a comprehensive national movement in order to promote and facilitate successful and easy marriage for all girls and boys and for all individuals eligible for marriage, denouncing singlehood in society by formulating executive policies, ratifying encouraging and supportive laws and rules, creating the right culture, and giving value to forming an honorable family on the basis of divine traditions.
5. Strengthening family and promoting its social capital on the basis of satisfaction, fair-mindedness, helpfulness, respect, love and affection by emphasizing the following:
A. Utilizing all the educational and media capacities of the country in line with solidifying the foundation of family and familial relationships.
B. Creating the right culture and strengthening moral interactions.
C. Confronting – in an efficient manner – the soft war that the enemies have waged in order to destroy and corrupt family relationships, removing obstacles, and clearing away the impairments and problems that confront the empowerment of families.
D. Banning the promotion of programs that harm family values.
E. Providing opportunities for the beneficial and efficient presence of family members beside one another, and helping families to benefit from their leisure time when they are together.
6. Presenting and portraying the Islamic paradigm of family, and strengthening and promoting the Islamic-Iranian lifestyle by doing the following:
A. Promoting lofty values and honorable traditions in marriage and family formation.
B. Highlighting moral values and filtering away false beliefs regarding family.
C. Fighting against aristocratic behavior, extravagance and models of western culture.
D. Correcting the behavior of societal role models, highlighting their good conducts, and preventing the formation of unhealthy societal role models.
7. Reviewing, amending and completing the legal system and judicial procedures in the area of family in line with new needs and developments, settling legal proceedings in primary stages through the judicial system, administering justice and ensuring security during all judicial and legal procedures, during the execution of verdicts on family proceedings with the purpose of strengthening and empowering the family.
8. Creating a healthy environment and encouraging the observance of Islamic relationships between men and women in society.
9. Improving families’ livelihoods and economic affairs by empowering them with the purpose of decreasing their future concerns about employment, marriage and housing.
10. Organizing and systematizing the consultation system before, during and after forming a family, and facilitating access to that system on the basis of Islamic-Iranian principles and in the direction of strengthening family.
11. Empowering and encouraging families to cooperate in the forward movement of the goals and plans of the country in all cultural, economic, political and defensive arenas.
12. Supporting spousal dignity and respect, highlighting women’s maternal and housekeeping role, men’s paternal and economic role and the educational and spiritual responsibility of both women and men, empowering family members to accept their responsibilities and their familial interactions, to play their role, and to fulfill their mission.
13. Preventing social harms and factors that result in the collapse of family particularly the issue of divorce, compensating for the harm that divorce inflicts by continuous identification of factors leading to divorce and to the collapse of family, and creating the right culture for denouncing divorce.
14. Providing legal, economic and cultural support for those families that are managed by women, and encouraging and facilitating their marriage.
15. Adopting supportive and encouraging methods for respecting the elderly in the family and providing physical, psychological and emotional care for them.
16. Preparing the ground for ensuring families’ health in all areas, particularly in the area of pregnancy and policies to increase the birth-rate with the purpose of building a young, healthy, dynamic and growing society.