The Dangerous Proposal of the Parliament Attacking the People’s Mental Well-being
After the involvement of the clergy in schools, the national broadcaster, and kindergartens, now it’s the turn of the parliament’s dangerous proposal to attack the mental well-being of the people by targeting counseling centers.
Recently, the conservative parliament has put forward a proposal that would allow the religious seminary to issue counseling licenses, enabling clerics to work alongside psychologists and counselors. This proposal has faced opposition from the psychology community and the Psychology Organization, as it is considered a dangerous encroachment on the psychology profession and a manipulation of the people’s mental well-being.
The Psychology Organization recently raised an outcry over the activities of pseudo-psychologists or ‘yellow’ Instagram psychologists and has repeatedly published lists of individuals who operate as psychologists and counselors without licenses from the organization, some of whom are quite famous.
Although the head of the Psychology Organization has described the counseling proposal with a religious and Islamic approach as unprofessional and divisive, it is expected that this body will stand more firmly against the parliament’s proposal. The parliament’s proposal is similar to what the judiciary did years ago with the Bar Association, establishing a judicial advisory center to counter the Bar Association as an independent body responsible for defending people’s rights in legal disputes. The legal profession is an independent entity from the judicial structure in all countries.
For a long time, a part of the power structure within the conservative movement has sought to increase the clergy’s share in educational, cultural, and training domains, or in other words, to take these areas out of the hands of mere specialists and entrust policy-making and implementation to the clergy. In fact, conservatives in power have concluded that if the current socio-cultural state of the country is far from their utopian or idealized vision, it is due to the absence of the clergy class in this arena.
Therefore, they have put plans such as employing clerics in schools, kindergartens, the national broadcaster, and even recently in fighting the coronavirus on their agenda. While these plans have been implemented sporadically, none have reached the stage of becoming a parliamentary approval or official law.
Clergy in the National Broadcaster
One of the areas that has been completely taken over by the clergy in recent years, showcasing the presence of various clerics with diverse and sometimes strange recommendations and teachings, is the national broadcaster. Ayatollah Moqtadaei, director of the Supreme Council of the Qom Seminary, pointed out existing issues in the national broadcaster during the 2019 opening ceremony of the Faculty of Broadcasting in Qom, stating that the students of this faculty should consider it a branch of the seminary schools, engaged in studying and teaching specialized media courses like other specialized seminary centers.
Unfortunately, today’s television programs and films feature individuals who lack expertise in religious and ethical matters and produce films based solely on personal mentalities. The expectation from this faculty is to create a religious and spiritual transformation in the national broadcaster and influence all domestic and foreign networks of Iran. In addition to educational and research interactions, the national media can utilize the Promotion and Refinement Departments of the seminaries to advance the system’s goals in the national broadcaster.
Clerics appearing in the national broadcaster and various films are perceived by the public as representatives of the seminary, the grand authorities, and the Awaited Imam, may God hasten his reappearance. Therefore, the seminary should supervise these films.
The students of the Faculty of Broadcasting should consider this institution as a branch of the seminary schools, engaged in studying and teaching specialized courses in the media field like other specialized seminary centers.
آیت الله مقتدایی مدیر شورای عالیه حوزه علمیه قمClerics in Schools
The Ministry of Education has also been working on the plan to employ clerics in schools for some time. In 2019, it was officially announced that the recruitment exams for male and female clerics in the Ministry of Education had expanded from three to eight fields. New fields for clerics included history, philosophy, Persian literature, and social sciences.
Previously, clerics were mainly recruited in Arabic language, Quran, and educational sciences fields in the Ministry of Education. The Kayhan newspaper last year, during the confidence vote for the Minister of Education, pointed out some social norm-breaking behaviors and behaviors contrary to Islamic and cultural values, questioning why some female students, after 12 years in the country’s educational system, remain unfamiliar with the most basic aspects of the philosophy of hijab and why their intellectual and spiritual growth hasn’t been sufficiently worked on, despite their necessary academic and educational achievements.
In this regard, one of the solutions we previously proposed is utilizing the large number of young, faithful, and ethical male and female clerics who have been trained in seminaries and are knowledgeable about modern sciences and familiar with the language of the youth. They can be stationed in schools as the authority of educational and training affairs, becoming the source of many educational and training impacts.
It is suggested that the topic of placing a male or female cleric in each school be reviewed in the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution or the Parliament and, if possible, be turned into law. Last December, 29 members of parliament proposed a plan not only to expedite and facilitate the presence of cleric-soldiers in schools but also requested that the Ministry of Education pay the full salary and benefits of these clerics during these two years.
Clerics in Kindergartens
Until a few years ago, kindergartens were under the supervision of the Welfare Organization, but some began criticizing the educational and training atmosphere prevailing there, questioning some programs containing dance and music to the extent that last year, all kindergartens were removed from the Welfare Organization’s oversight and handed over to the Ministry of Education. In this context, the discussion of clerics entering kindergartens was also raised.
The murmurs of this had been present before. For example, in 2007, the Prayer Establishment Headquarters in Yazd mentioned the implementation of a plan for the presence of clerics in kindergartens, stating that clerics would be present in kindergartens providing necessary cultural education to children in very good ways. The secretary of the Seminary and Education Cooperation Headquarters also announced in November 2020 the establishment of a preschool affiliated with the seminary, with its management and programs set by the seminary based on the framework and regulations of the Ministry of Education. The Seminary Services Center in the provinces also annually holds kindergarten teacher training courses in line with Islamic values.