Iran's share of global science production increased 19-fold after Islamic Revolution

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A group of academic elites of the country—including CEOs of knowledge-based enterprises; prominent academics who have returned from abroad; top ranking participants of Olympiads, cross-country contests and scientific festivals; outstanding academic researchers from different universities; exceptionally talented students as well as students ranking top in the 2018 cross-country university entrance exam—met with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei, this morning October 17, 2018.

In this meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei urged officials to benefit from the ideas and recommendations of the academics in order to improve the country’s affairs and said: The intellectual elites[‘s ideas and suggestions] should be benefitted from in planning the matters of the country. Some outstanding talents enjoy both a great capability of thinking and management skills— which must be made use of.

Ayatollah Khamenei mentioned that Iran should safeguard its entity via scientific development by stating: If we do not advance in science, our enemies' threats will last permanently.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution held: Today human science faces limits; our academic elites should participate in pushing the limits.

Ayatollah Khamenei attributed nation’s falling behind world’s scientific growth to neglecting science during the monarchical rules of the Pahlavis and Qajars over Iran, and maintained: We have lagged behind the global scientific movement for 200 years,: this is because of the Iranian talent and academic elite have been ignored.

The Supreme Leader went on to say: This talent has always existed in Iran throughout history and it stems from great personalities like Farabi, Avicenna, and Khwarizmi, and others. However, why should our country lag behind the rest of the world at a time when science has advanced at a great pace around the world?— such that during the eras of Qajar and Pahlavi, our country turned into one of the most backward countries in this respect.

Ayatollah Khamenei urged the academic and science professionals to promote Iran’s share in science production; he asserted: Our country entails about one percent of the world population; this, our share of human efforts should be at least one percent. However, during the final years of the Pahlavi Regime, Iran was producing about 1/10 percent of world science, which shows how backward we used to be!

Ayatollah Khamenei added: Today, with God’s grace, we contribute in producing science even more than our share, about 1.9 percent. This is great, yet we are not satisfied; it should increase.

Ayatollah Khamenei praised Islamic Republic of Iran’s improvements in academic activities compared to that of pre-Revolution and held: The establishment of the first university in Iran, in 1934, till 44 years late—that is in 1978, we only had 150,000 university students; whereas, today we have over 4 million university students. The two different systems are revealed in these areas. We should appreciate the Islamic Republic for this great move.

The Supreme Leader remarked that the establishment must collaborate with the academics and intellectuals to further the development of the nation and said: There should be a mutual exchange between the elites and the management system. The government must provide services for the elites, not letting the elites be left with no roles; because in this case, our country won’t advance. Today, it is proved that nothing is more influential in the country’s development than the human force. Human resources are a great capital and the enemies seek to take this wealth away from the country. The enemy seeks scientific exclusion so no other nation can gain power-producing and wealth-producing knowledge; thus, they murder scientists of other countries. This does not only happen to us. During the time the U.S. dominated Iraq, tens of Iraqi scientists were identified and killed, so that Iraq would not progress in the absence of Saddam.


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