In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Noon, I swear by the pen and what the angels write. «1»
The honorable Iranian nation:
You are well aware that in the previous regime what was overshadowing the combatant Iranian nation was despotism and dictatorship, together with the absurd propaganda and the overstatement of minor issues. A nation who was deprived of the basic needs was made to believe to be at the zenith of prosperity. Among the fundamental needs of any nation is the free education for everybody; the same thing applies regarding republic hygiene and housing. Regretfully, our nation was deprived of this basic welfare in the previous regime. Most of our citizens are illiterate and are unable to read and write, let alone having the higher education. It is a point of shame for a nation which has been the cradle for sciences, knowledge and literature and which has been living under the banner of Islam, which regards compulsory, to be deprived of the skills of reading and writing. We have to, in our long term planning, convert our dependent culture into an independent, self-sufficient one. Now, without wasting our time and disregarding the tedious red tapes, we have to mobilize ourselves, God willing, to prepare everybody to be capable of reading and writing in the near future. To achieve this objective, every illiterate man and woman should get ready and each literate person should teach others how to read and write and the ministry of education should carry out this program wholeheartedly and avoid indulging in formalities and bureaucracy. I will ask my faithful and devoted Muslim brothers and sisters to get ready to uproot this painful shortcoming. Educating others and getting educated is a form of worship to which the Almighty God has invited us. The Friday Imams in cities and villages should invite the illiterate ones in the mosques and religious centers to teach them how to read and write. They should not wait for the state financial support and should, in their private homes, teach the illiterate how to read and write.
The illiterate, too, have to be ready to learn. I ask the honorable Iranian nation through their perseverance, to change Iran into a large school and to spend one or two hours of their free time on educating the illiterate ones. Be ready since the Almighty God is your supporter. I ask God for prosperity, health and welfare for the honorable nation of Iran. May God's peace be upon you.
Rouhoullah al-Mousawi al-Khomeini