Is the ayatollah a feminist?

The horseshoe theory may have been on full display after the supreme leader of Iran made a surprisingly feminist statement on social media.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei often ponders philosophical and political topics on his X page, most recently critiquing the role of women in Western society. In a string of posts on Wednesday, Khamenei insisted that Islam treats women better than other Western faiths and societies, and even resurrected a 2010s feminist talking point that has long been debunked.

‘Women’s wages are lower than men’s for the same work.’

“Islam’s view of women is the opposite of the Western capitalist view,” Khamenei said in a post on X. “In Islam, she possesses her independence, her capacity to act & to progress, her identity; in the West, her dignity is not respected, and she is treated as an object in the service of material interests.”

There is certainly room to criticize women’s role in Western societies, especially in the post-modern era. However, Khamenei conveniently omits the practical application of Sharia law in countries like Iran that tolerate child marriages and require women to hide behind hijabs.

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In an even more surprising take, Iran’s supreme leader insisted that the gender wage gap was an oppressive reality that Western women have to endure, despite it being both disproven and outlawed altogether.

“Today, in many Western countries, women’s wages are lower than men’s for the same work,” Khamenei said in a post on X. “Today, that’s how it is. It’s a blatant injustice.”

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While criticizing the West, the ayatollah omitted the real, dramatic gender disparities in Iran’s workforce.

In Iran, less than 14% of women participate in the workforce, compared to 67% of men. Additionally, a husband can prevent a wife from working at all if he believes it to be “with the family interests or the dignity of himself or his wife.”

Iran’s law also forbids women from being employed in “dangerous, arduous, or harmful work,” with massive underrepresentation in higher professions like parliament. Women are barred from positions like supreme leader, and they cannot be appointed to judicial roles.

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