Iranian leader Ali Khamenei stressed the importance of women's participation in decision-making in the country.

"Employing our wise, competent, insightful, and expert women in various levels of decision-making in the country is an important issue, and we must achieve this," Khamenei said.

While receiving a group of women activists in the country's cultural, social, and scientific fields, Sayyed Khamenei affirmed that Tehran's "position in the face of the West's hypocrisy and claims about women's rights in the country is that of a caller [for women's rights] rather than a defender."

Read: West practices selective application of human rights: Iranian UN envoy

"The West is guilty against women, and it has committed crimes against them," he stressed.

The leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran also reminded that resistance was obligatory for both women and men, explaining that resistance for men was different from that of women.

"During the sacred defense period, women had duties too, and they performed these duties well," he explained.

Additionally, Sayyed Khamenei noted that women who are not fully veiled should not be accused of blasphemy.

Read: Iranian Hijab: Working-class symbol in an anti-imperialist class war

This comes after an Iranian Foreign Ministry official expressed Iran’s readiness to provide university education for Afghan women after the Taliban authorities implemented a nationwide ban on higher education.

The Taliban authorities implemented a nationwide ban on university education for women, a move that comes just three months after thousands of women sat for entrance examinations for higher education across the country.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani expressed Tehran's disapproval of the Taliban's decision to suspend university education for women students in Afghanistan. 

The Iranian Spokesperson said Tehran hopes that those in charge would immediately lift the ban and allow Afghan women to access education at schools and universities, so that female students would enjoy the right to education and assume a more active role in Afghanistan's development and prosperity.